East North East Homes Leeds and Canopy Housing Project have been invited by Yorkshire Forward to the Creating Better Futures Awards 2009. The event is established to highlight the successful partnerships between the private sector and voluntary, community and faith (VCF) organisations. The Awards aim to demonstrate the true partnership working between the sectors and are designed to encourage the sharing and development of skills, knowledge and ability within the community economic development agenda whilst promoting best practice.
Canopy Housing Project is a locally originated innovative neighbourhood project with an 11 year track record of regeneration work in some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Leeds – first in Hyde Park, now in Beeston and Harehills. It is based on a unique concept of regeneration involving teams of volunteers, staff, trades people and homeless ‘self-helpers’ who all work together to create decent homes out of long standing vacant derelict properties in the poorest areas of Leeds.
Canopy acquires derelict housing stock on long leases (21 or 25 years), deemed uneconomical to repair by the local authority, and renovates them into decent affordable homes for homeless people. The work is carried out by a team of staff and volunteers – one of whom is a ‘self-helper’ who gets to live in the property on completion. Each year 4-5 abandoned houses are brought back to life. This provides many disadvantaged individuals with a new start in life, a new home, valuable construction skills in painting and decorating, plastering, joinery and carpet fitting/floor laying. We work in partnership with the whole community: schools, charities, construction skills training agencies, colleges and community groups, all of whom refer volunteers to Canopy.
The whole neighbourhood benefits from the uplift and from increased security. The work helps to integrate diverse communities, and disenfranchised individuals within them. Skilled trades people share their skills with staff and volunteers of all ages: young people partially excluded from school, people leaving institutions, ex-offenders, those recovering from drug or alcohol abuse, all get a new chance in life an accepting, informal learning environment. Many volunteers go on to formal training courses, some set up in business, others regain their health and confidence in life.
Canopy Housing Project has been recognised as an innovative model and its work been highlighted by the Empty Homes Agency, the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (hact) and the Centre of Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) of Birmingham University. They actively encourage other similar projects to start up in the U.K.
Canopy’s work contributes to key local and national strategies and benefits some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, including those in the bottom 3% on the Overall Index of Deprivation (OID).
We have consulted all the major players in the Harehills area including the Phoenix Residents Association, the Homeless Prevention Team, Asian Youth in Partnership, Leeds Re-Build, Stop Hate UK, East Leeds Area Management Team, Bangladeshi Centre, Leeds College of Building, Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, Rathbone Training, schools and neighbourhoods in the localities where Canopy works. We have held talks and given presentations, distributed leaflets in main community languages, contacted religious and community organisations and talked to individual neighbours about our work and listened to their aspirations for the area.The project has been warmly welcomed by all.
The organisation is independent and charitable, registered as an Industrial and Provident Society for the benefit of the community. Canopy is independent and receives no public funding. All income is from rents (similar to local authority levels) as well as grants from charitable trusts.