News & Notes 663:2nd ARA on housing
In all, about thirty suggestions to solve or alleviate the present housing crisis were made at the first Entity::ARA meeting on housing. These fell into three main categories: finding new accommodation/places to build; planning and construction; and financing affordable housing.
However, there was little attempt to suggest how these suggestions could be implemented. This became the focus of the second meeting.
Participants broke into three groups based upon the different categories of solutions suggested at the first meeting. They were asked to prioritise a few possible solutions and then suggest how they could be implemented. The suggested framework was that, for each prioritised solution, they look at What needs to happen? How? By whom? and When?
The finding new accommodation/places to build table prioritised the need for a survey of the lands that are presently available for housing and of the density, occupancy and development possibilities in existing communities. It was acknowledged that a number of such surveys already exist, so there is a need to collect them in one database that should be publicly available. They suggested that the Entity::Housing Service should be empowered to do this work.
The planning and construction table came up with three interlinked ideas as the most critical ones. Strategic planning for housing, based on the needs of Aurovilians and Newcomers; helping Aurovilians and Newcomers to build their own houses; and setting up a Building Service. Such a Service would facilitate the planning and construction of houses through bringing together all the relevant parties – plumbers, carpenters, architects etc. – and available expertise relating to building methods and materials.
Regarding strategic planning, this group felt the first step was to acquire information through a targeted survey on the real needs of those seeking housing at present.
They also identified two other fundamental changes needed to solve the housing problem. Firstly, converting the present crisis into an opportunity for joyful service that should involve Aurovilians rather than commercial builders in construction. “Building homes has to be the new rallying call.” Secondly, delinking contributions to the Housing Fund from the place that someone occupies. As they put it, “The current housing approach promotes ownership because each house comes with a price tag. If we are able to take a more collective stance towards funding houses, we might be able to move away from ownership.”
The financing of housing table came up with a number of suggestions. These included promoting greater wealth in Auroville through encouraging new business ventures, including ‘super-units’ that would dedicate 100% of their profits to Auroville to fund housing; encouraging commercial units to dedicate a percentage of their profits to housing, as well as providing housing for their Aurovilian workforce; prioritising government grants for housing rather than roads; setting up a bulk purchase and storage unit for construction materials that would also sell to the general public (one of the participants is willing to help finance and coordinate this); and a free store for leftover building materials.
Some of these would require policy changes. Participants also felt a group is needed to make detailed and comprehensive studies of financing possibilities for housing and the true costs of these proposals.
There was also the realisation, shared by the other participants at this meeting, that there is a need for a core team to take forward the key proposals from these two ARA meetings and try to ensure they are implemented. This will involve, among other things, coordinating with the relevant working groups and exploring relevant policy reforms.
Encouragingly, by the end of the meeting fifteen people had volunteered to be part of one or other of these groups.
Nobody has any illusions that change will happen overnight. In the concluding discussion session, it was remarked that any profound change will depend not only upon technical solutions – like more accurate surveys of the present situation – but also upon a change of consciousness. As one participant put it, “There is a concern that Auroville no longer has the ideal of no personal property. The main thing is to have a vision where housing is provided on the basis of need, not of personal finances, where houses do not become people’s personal possessions. If some of us can hold this vision powerfully enough, it will create a vortex that will draw in more and more people.”
It was also remarked that if our vision and work is of a high-enough quality to inspire the world, then the world will freely contribute to and support what we are doing here.
These meetings generated a lot of energy and creativity. It felt there was a new impetus and collective aspiration to tackle our housing challenge. Now the ball has to keep rolling...
The Organization Research Group (ORG)