Design guru offers encouragement to Liverpool housing charity
A Liverpool housing charity has welcomed a surprise visitor, design guru Wayne Hemingway. The founder of the Red or Dead fashion label turned designer of affordable and social housing, as well as anything from digital radios to sheds, fold-up bikes and water-butts shaped like bottoms, dropped in on Liverpool Habitat for Humanity whilst on a whistle-stop tour of the city.
Having toured the LHFH homes currently under construction using a largely volunteer workforce that includes the future home owners themselves, the innovative designer offered his own words of encouragement.
“Getting people involved in the building of their own housing has so many benefits. This is a great idea that deserves to succeed," said Wayne.
Wayne met with some of the staff and trustees of Liverpool Habitat for Humanity, including architect David Ainsley, whose Birkenhead-based practice Ainsley Gommon came up with the award winning housing designs that successfully meet building standards whilst being easy for a largely unskilled workforce to construct.
The 32 houses off Kingsley Road, in Granby-Toxteth are being built through volunteer labour and donations of land, material and money. Each home partner family is required to contribute a minimum of 500 hours of their own labour - called "sweat equity" - into the building process. This fosters community development, increases the pride of ownership and reduces the cost of labour; so making the homes more affordable to families on low incomes.
In exchange, LHFH offers £10,000 towards the deposit required to obtain a mortgage. The houses are sold to the families on a shared equity basis with a minimum home owner contribution of £50,000 to a maximum of a 70% share in the first instance. After one year, home owners can gradually increase their ownership to 100%.
Home owners are joined on site by other volunteers, including students, overseas visitors, community and faith groups and employees taking part in corporate team-builds, all under the watchful eye of LHFH’s core construction staff.
The Liverpool charity is affiliated to Habitat for Humanity International, the non-profit making, inter-denominational charity dedicated to eliminating poverty housing and homelessness worldwide. To date, the global organisation has built over 300,000 homes in 92 countries, providing more than 1.5 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter.
For more information about supporting, volunteering or becoming a home owner with Liverpool Habitat for Humanity, visit liverpoolhfh.org.uk.
For more about Wayne and his team’s eclectic mix of design projects – including the Staiths South Bank joint venture with George Wimpey in Gateshead - go to hemingwaydesign.co.uk.
