Walk for Homes - Week 2! Sweet northern generosity

Walk for Homes: Week 2 update! Housegirl is just over halfway through the 5 week walk and our campaign!

And we've made our way through week 2 of our crowdfunder and Housegirl has treaded their little House sandals through Worcestershire, Birmingham, Belper, Sheffield and Leeds!

After an incredibly swift and awkward videocall interview with a BBC Bristol journalist in which Housegirl had to find some part of the Postlip Community Coop mansion to stand in without ancient armour or a grand facade as backdrop, they were given a lift by their kind host into Tewksbury, the town of flags (pic 1). Housegirl stopped for a nice community centre jacket potato lunch in Tewkesbury before heading off to find the River Severn and their way up to Worcester.

Stiles and style all the way, Housgirl had to keep their legs from getting scratched to hell with knee socks and sandals. Watch the trend fallout. But yeh, so many damn stiles climbed in a house (pic 2)

A nice lady and her daughter took pity on Housegirl in a field and offered them a lift out of their way and into Worcester city in time for sunset against Worcester Cathedral. Happy Housegirl (pic 3)

Housegirl was told the hotel they were staying in was dodgy by some folks who saw them going in earlier in the evening. Anyway, they were a woman dressed as a house, safe to say any dodge types would have been best confused. Nice view of the River Severn (pic 4) Donations gratefully received by people sitting outside pubs while they wandered around looking for dinner (huge sigh of relief, house still on but without lumbering around the backpack)

Housegirl headed to Birmingham and a wander around what used to be the Quaker owned estate of Cadbury World (pic 5) , who would look after it's local workers by housing them and providing all that was needed in the local area eg dentist (funny considering their sugary product). Housegirl was of course well aware the same would not have been the case for the workers across the world picking the cocoa beans in slavery or terrible working conditions. The conclusion? Don't take what we don't need from anywhere!

The following day, on to the Friends of the Earth mutual aid cafe (pic 6) that happened to be round the corner from the hostel Housegirl was staying in. And the person working there just happened to be someone Housegirl had met on a course in Commoning the years before! Much to catch up on and discuss about the world, including how Friends of the Earth support groups in Birmingham and nationally. A nice site too where a local grassroots radio station and Acorn Birmingham operated from. They owned the building so could charge reasonable rents to these organisations, otherwise they could not afford these spaces!

Before heading off, it started chucking it down, but luckily Gung Ho Coop showed up in their tiny car and kindly took Housegirl's backpack for them so they only needed to walk in their house. And boy did they have a spring in their step, up through Derby and to the Radical Routes gathering in Belper.

The rest days never seem to come soon enough!

Camping at Radical Routes, however much a Housegirl prefers a house, was such a welcome relief. And they got to meet up with fellow Coop member Anne-Marie (pic 11), as well as Hastings other housing coop -Walden Pond! (pic 10)

There is a small donation for the weekend covering basic electricity costs and food. All coops that wish to join RR must do 3 training workshops incl an Intro to Radical Routes structure (pic 7) and Consensus training for decision making (pic 8). Then you have the opportunity to introduce your coop in order to join, and then you have the opportunity to apply for support through the Radical Routes network, including a Radical Routes loan. There was a lot of support for new coops, and free sharing of information, despite many people needing support at the same time. There wasn't a huge amount of working class or Global Majority representation at the weekend, a pattern that aligns with what we were told at the start 'people like you don't start housing coops.' We are here to change this. They did meet the working class championing Greenwood Coop from Leeds, and connected with folks from the legendary Cornerstone Coop, and another potential place to stay with Leicester's Blackcurrant Coop.

It turns out Housegirl is really not cut out for camping and barely slept all 3 of the days in Belper. There may have been 1 night of dancing but that was a type of rest in itself. So they got a train most of the way to Sheffield instead of walking to fit in a recovery day.

But Holymoly did they land in the right place - up the road was an all vegan Japanese take away, and at normal local take away prices! (pic 13)

They wandered around Sheffield chatting to people, including a homeless chap who offered Housegirl a parking voucher because he was actually a millionaire. Wherever they went, homeless people were among the most generous. (pic 12)

On the way to the launderette they got chased up the road by a local Sheffield journalist. Finally a journalist actually knowing a story when they see one. (pic 13 and 14)

Sheffield - 'Lets show our northern generosity,' Brambles Housing Coop (pic 15, 16, 17) was an absolute dream and actually the reverse of what Housegirl was used to seeing - the coop was all working class members bar 1 chap, who took the class ribbing in good humour. A cosy little attic room for themself, and a sweet communal dinner with birthday cake for one of the members from Skegness. They were told about some of the harsh truths of living in a housing coop, which needed to be heard. It isn't all utopic living, it is hard work to run things collectively.

Housegirl popped into @west.yorkshire.history centre on their way to Leeds and what did they find but lots of old land deeds (pic 19, 20). Self proclaimed people of importance with ornate and jeweled documents to 'prove' ownership as well as old inventories. This is what our system of ownership and homelessness is founded on, it is so outdated.

Onto Leeds and Housesgirl was texting various coops along the way very last minute bed wrangling! Bizarrely and gratefully all coops offered a bed, and they had been told lots of wonderful things about Lilac Co-Housing, so they opted for them. They were not disappointed. Lilac is a purpose built sustainable little village. (pic 21, 22, 23) Fruit trees throughout and food growing everywhere in the gardens surrounding the housing. People shared a small number of cars which are tucked out of site rather than upfront in front of the home. Their wonderful host Lee showed them the communal area for screenings, shared office, shared laundry room and a seperate kitchen where they have meals together once a week, and once a year they go away together to maintain the vital connection to work together as a coop. There was a coop allotment and a performance space with an old hot air balloon canopy glowing in the sun and gently billowing. And they even had a community park that local residents could access. It was bordering on utopic.

Housegirl reluctantly left utopia heading into Leeds centre where they had a wander round and made a video, getting cheers from passers by as they did and donations while they sat down in the Corn Exchange for a cuppa before the next stop - Bradford.