Bevendean queer housing co-op seeks new members

ABOUT THE HOUSE:

Skylark is a 7 bedroom house in Bevendean, Brighton, that backs onto the Downs and has a large garden. We are a 25 minute cycle to the centre of town and the 48 bus stops just around the corner from us.
Rent is £339 a month for a double room, and £295 a month for the single room, plus £48 bills (including fast broadband). We each spend approx £10 a week on communal food and other necessities. In the long term want to build an extension to give us more communal space as what we have is small, especially when there are 7 people and a dog in the living room!

HOW WE LIVE:
Our co-op is our home and our project – we love getting stuck into the running of the co-op and we live more communally than a typical house-share. We cultivate a family feeling that’s warm and supportive, and we put a lot of effort into our relationships with each other!
Practically speaking, living at Skylark means committing to cooking for everyone once a week (and getting fed with no effort the other six evenings!), attending house meetings every three weeks and work days once a month, and participating in the weekly cleaning rota. Living in a co-operative involves more work than a normal rental property. This includes keeping on top of our finances, attending co-operative events, and organising or undertaking repairs and maintenance. No one person has to do all of this, but you shouldn’t apply if you don’t have any time to commit to the day-to-day running of the co-op.
We are members of Radical Routes and that commits us to going to quarterly gatherings to represent our co-op.
Some of the ways that we spend time together include having bonfires in the garden, heckling Bake Off programmes, chats over tea, board games.

WHO WE ARE:
– Most of us are trans
– All of us are white and working to be anti-racist
– Some of us are disabled and we are trying to improve accessibility
– Most of us are in our 20s but we are hoping to increase our average age
– We’d love to live inter-generationally
– Our kitchen and communal foods are vegan. We are fat-positive. Not all
of us are vegan. We don’t police each other’s food choices
– Most of us are sex workers
– Most of us are middle-class; not all of us are
– Most of us have alternatives sexual relationships and practices (e. g.
non-monogamous, kinky, queer, sex-ambivalent, etc.)
– All of us are engaged in political resistance and we recognize that this
can be at home, in the streets, or at work; formal or informal,
organized or ordinary
– We understand that systemic oppression effects people differently
depending on race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality
– We work in care, trans sexuality research, gardening, sex and gender
education, computer science, and massage.

MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA (who we are looking for):
We are looking for someone who:
– Communicates honestly, openly, and respectfully
– Seeks responsibility and is prepared to muck in
– Has time and enthusiasm to commit to the co-op and to being involved in
the Radical Routes network
– Ideally 25 or older
– Has similar political views to us, especially a belief in non-hierarchy
and challenging power relations
– Is engaged/interested in radical social change
– We can be friends with, and has at least some similar interests as us
– Wants to live communally
– Wants to live in a house with a vegan kitchen
– Is happy living with a dog

ACCESSIBLITY INFORMATION:

There is a 20cm step to the front door. The front door is 79cm wide, the hallway is 90cm wide, internal doors are 71-75cm wide, and the back door to the garden is 59cm wide with a step down. There are 14 steps up to the first floor. Five of the bedrooms are downstairs and there is a downstairs toilet and shower. All communal space is downstairs.

The nearest bus stop is 100m away and goes through the centre of town to the train station.