Housing is a key human right. Coming together to ensure that everyone has adequate safe housing is a fundamental purpose of healthy society.
Triangle Mutual Aid has engaged with housing in a number of ad-hoc ways, such as helping a couple rescue items put out on the curb after an eviction, organizing mass call-ins to abusive landlords, providing funds for short-term housing needs, paying for storage-space needs for a displaced friend, and mediating roommate conflict. Our commitment to housing is currently manifest in two main projects: Weaver Community Housing Association and the Rose of Sharon Catholic Worker hospitality housing project. Neither of these is “our” project, but rather they are two significant housing projects in the NC Triangle where multiple members of our Mutual Aid collective contribute many hours of physical labor, time in meetings, and other contributions.
Weaver Community Housing Association is a resident-controlled housing cooperative in Carrboro. WCHA owns two older apartment complexes and accepts only resident members who earn 60% of the area median income or less—it's specifically a place for low-income residents. The cooperative was founded with principles of affordability, perpetuity, dweller-control, sustainability, diversity, and community. You can read more about T.M.A. member Devin's experience with cooperatives in this Patreon post.
The Durham tiny-house hospitality homes are a project of the Rose of Sharon Catholic Worker. For the past many months, we have had regular Saturday-morning work days, and sometimes other work days, where we come together to support the project by digging trenches, mixing and pouring concrete, nailing together wooden framing, digging up clay to mix with sand and straw, making cob bricks and filling in the walls. The goal is to build a larger community building and a number of tiny houses so as to provide sorely needed housing to those who can't afford it. The project embraces ecological and housing rights values as well as honoring the spiritual heritage of some of the members. You can read some more and enjoy some photos in this post on our Patreon site.
Read more about our philosophy around housing in these posts from our Patreon site. Subscribe to support!
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