The OWCH group

OWCH is a group of women aged from 50 to 80+ who have got together to plan the first cohousing community of older people in the UK. Our decision to be for women only is based on the fact that it tends to be women who live alone most in old age - but we have always seen ourselves as pioneering a model for all older people. We are keen to help other older groups learn from us to develop their own schemes and we often have visitors with this in mind at our monthly all-day meetings.

OWCH members come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, most are retired but some are still working. We want to live close to each other - with our own front doors - and offer each other mutual support as we get older. We also want to live in energy efficient ways and be a resource for the local community in Barnet. Most of all, our members want to have all the benefits of a lively, friendly, group of neighbours keen to share interests and activities. We have developed policies and ways of working together to consolidate this sense of belonging.

Our history

Forming a successful cohousing community requires mobilising capital and locating and buying land. In London particularly this is beset with difficulty. Our unfamiliarity with the commercial construction world and our lack of available finance has led us in the direction of housing associations. We have seen them as developers and - perhaps idealistically - also as people-centred charities, rooted in local communities, who would respond to an innovative concept such as senior cohousing. Over the years, our group has formed alliances with a number of housing associations as possible developers, and gained and then lost several potential sites – for various reasons, but lack of familiarity with cohousing may have been one of them.  This is a national issue, but OWCH has worked hard to raise the profile of cohousing and a wider understanding of its potential benefits for older people and an ageing society.
 
OWCH's current partners

Hanover Housing Group is OWCH's developer and has purchased a site for the group in High Barnet, ideally placed near local shops, amenities and transport routes. A building of 25 three, two and one-bedroom flats with common space and a garden has been designed by the architects Pollard, Thomas, Edwards, with input from OWCH members. The aim is for a well-designed, low-energy building suitable for growing old in and fitting in sympathetically with the local conservation area. Two thirds of the flats will be for sale. The landlord for the rental units will be Housing for Women, a small housing association, who have worked in partnership with OWCH on this pioneering development. A car-sharing scheme will operate.

LATEST UPDATE:
The OWCH scheme in High Barnet has had planning permission since 9th April 2013. Responsibility for tendering a construction contract lies with Hanover Housing Group. The OWCH group hopes that initial work on the site will begin in early 2014 for completion by late 2015