Beware? Celebrate? International big city housing crises explore desperation moves that aim to to temporarily ward off impending housing disaster. The United Kingdom, thanks to adopting some Wild West housing regulations, has been exploring weird unusual living spaces to ease access to small patches of affordable housing.
Brownfields have recently been liberated from meeting the by-law responsibilities to protect those who might be inclined to live there. Poking around on poisoned soil has proven effective to free up city housing1.
And then there are the ever-ingenious Londoners who have come up with another affordable housing move that fortuitously lowers rents, and dodges pesky property standards and landlord-tenant regulations.
The affordable housing concept du jour? Guardianship!
What is it? Take a crack at an American explanation if you like, for a hint if not a formal definition, from CNN: Londoners are paying to live in deserted schools, office blocks and an old cathedral to avoid ‘insane’ rents
Get down to the nitty gritty in a detailed ‘all you need to know’ article’ from MyLondon: Everything you need to know about living in a guardianship in London, from rights to fees and benefits
For more on the Guardianship in the U.K., try: Been Homeless? No? A Property Guardian Maybe — Not Quite Homeless, But Usefully Close
Is there a future in Guardianship for low-paid baristas worldwide with downtown jobs? Might they be willing to, say, bed down in an after-hours condo laundry room, or the like?
Footnotes
- Here’s a link to affordablehousingaction.org’s collection of posts about Brownfields
