Small double room available at Bug Housing Co-op

Vacancy at Bug Housing Cooperative

Bug Housing Cooperative are currently looking for a new member to join us in Higher Bevendean, Brighton. As a member of our housing cooperative you would be both living with us to create a home, and also actively working with us to maintain the business matters of the co-op. As such, there are certain requirements we need to fulfil within our application process.

The ideal skills we look for in our new members include the following (so please do mention/elaborate when responding to our questionnaire) -

Happy to live and work as part of a team.
Preference to live within a community/chosen family.
Able to communicate openly, honestly and with kindness.
Happy to offer your time and abilities to your coop role, as well as practical and social activities.
Basic office skills; IT, filing, etc.
Basic finance skills.
Basic maintenance skills.
Basic grasp of maths and english.
Organisational skills.
Ability to respond to emails quickly.
Commitment to the cooperative and ethical housing movement.
Awareness and engagement in environmental/social issues.
Ability to work on your own initiative.
Happy to clean and tidy around the home and garden.
Can do and muck in attitude.

On top of working well together as a group of individuals to support the business, it is also fundamental to our needs as a community to create a healthy living environment. We have found that the following values are most likely to create the living experience we want to achieve, and therefore value the following in all of our members.

Kindness.
Ability to listen.
Respect and consideration.
Responsibility of one's actions.
Friendliness and personability.
Openness and vulnerability.
Generosity and flexibility.
Sense of humour.
Open communication.
The desire to socialise together.
Active work on our own personal growth and ability to self reflect.
Compassion and understanding.
Acceptance and support of one another.

Hopefully, much of the above will resonate and potentially create a sense of excitement about joining us! Bug Housing cooperative has seen many amazing members, both past and present and we feel excited about who will call Bug a home in the future.

As a housing cooperative and home, Bug has a huge amount to offer to its members -

Affordable housing.
Secure housing and tenancy.
Ethical living.
Autonomy over living space.
Cooperation and participation; democratic decision making and member participation.
Empowerment through learning and responsibility.
Development of practical skills.
Conflict resolution.
A supportive environment.
Space for personal growth.
Quality of life.
A home.

And as a group of individuals living together we offer -

A safe, inclusive, reflective space where we practise active listening.
Diversity of experience, values and skill sharing.
Shared and equitable responsibility.
Friendship and connection.
Chosen family - a home away from home.
Emotional and practical support - both given and received.
Lightness of living; Shared social activities such as music and fires, cooking, crafting and fun.
Personal and shared growth - supportive members, life experience and wisdom shared.
Practising self awareness.
Inspiration.

Current vacancy details

The room available is a small double situated on the ground floor, it has a built-in double bed with space for storage underneath plus room for a small desk and chair (or a couple of pieces of small furniture). The room has two windows, one frosted window which looks out into our covered side alley and the other out onto the back garden. There is a step up to the bedroom. This bedroom is situated next to our main living spaces, the lounge room with dining table and sofa, which also opens out onto the kitchen area. This does mean that the room is not suitable for those needing peace and quiet. Please note that the photo of the bedroom is one prior to the built-in bed being installed, we will update this as soon as we can.
The room is available from around 18th March 2024.
Single occupancy only.
The rent is £417 pcm.
The costs above include gas/elec/council tax/internet, on top of this the deposit for the room is £400.
We also pay collectively to a monthly kitty for household items (loo paper, cleaning supplies, etc), this currently sits at around £8-9 per month.
As a housing co-operative we have the privilege of adjusting our rents accordingly with our expenses, however this does mean that rent and bill increases are likely as the cost of living rises.

Location, facilities and basics -

Our house is situated in Higher Bevendean and is a 15 minute cycle/bus ride into town. It is also just a 2 minute stroll up to the Downs. There are some local convenience stores and supermarkets and we are also served by both local veg box and milk suppliers.

The house itself is up a hill, with a slope and steps leading to the front door and more steps leading into the back garden. The double bedroom available is on the ground floor up a small step. We have one bathroom and a separate toilet, both of which are on the first floor. The house was built in the 1930’s and hence there are limitations on the adaptations we can make but we are very happy to add handrails and are open to considering other alterations.

We have a fair sized kitchen area and a lovely large, light and airy lounge room. Our 100 foot garden has a little pond, a lawn and a nice seated area & vegetable beds. We also have a fire pit and love to have a social gathering or two!

We like to think we're pretty eco-minded and use a 100% renewables electricity supplier, compost and recycle.

Due to the nature of living within a co-op we are looking for a proactive person who works well as part of a team, is friendly, sociable, flexible and generous. As landlord/tenants we are responsible for both the maintenance and the finances of the co-op, and hence you are required to put in more than the average shared house. Each member is required to take on a co-op role; treasurer, secretary, allocations, maintenance, garden, household, development. We also have a cleaning rota and on occasion we’ll organise a cleaning, gardening or decorating day.

In return for your input you get to live in a beautiful home with reasonable rent costs and fully participate within a house without the interference of a landlord/letting agency.

As a household that works together to support both the ideology and practice of cooperative housing we also feel that socialising together is incredibly important. On a day to day basis we are respectful of each other's needs to rest and work but we do on occasion like to use our beautiful space to hold gatherings both large and small. Of particular note are our often annual Bug parties. We love to work together to decorate our home and garden and bring all the lovely people we know together to celebrate life! These tend to go on pretty late and happen once or twice a year, with the odd birthday party inbetween.

In regard to the makeup of the five existing members of the house you would be living with two males and three females (between the ages of 27 and 48). Although we are feeling to honour an even gender split within our home, it is more important to us that you are keen to live communally, take an active role in co-op living and that you fit in personality-wise.

We are currently from the UK and one of our housemates is from India. We all identify as cisgender. However, for our new member we encourage and welcome applications from a broader scope than this. It is our belief that supporting diversity and individuality will bring a more varied approach, skill set, house dynamic and potential for growth both as a housing cooperative together and to each of us individually.

Unfortunately, due to the size of the rooms and necessity for no less than 6 members to take on essential roles in the co-op, we are not currently open to applications from people with live-in children or dependents.

Whilst we would like to find new members as soon as possible, we are willing to wait for the right person.

If any of the above appeals, please send us a message via Spareroom and the link to our questionnaire will be sent to you directly. Please fill this in and return to the email address at the top of the questionnaire by Thursday 29th February at the latest. For those of you that are less comfortable with writing your application, we are also happy to accept voice or video recordings as well. We will be reviewing these and holding interviews from late Feb/early March so returning your application sooner rather than later is advisable.

Due to a high number of responses not all applicants will be interviewed, so do make your questionnaire a good one!

Thanks so much from all of us at Bug <3