http://self-help-housing.org Promoting community driven housing initiatives Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:52:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en . Latch housing project in Leeds are running an innovative Lottery funded project which provides training for young people in construction skills. The Hands On Project now has its own website:  www.handson.latch.org.uk which describes the way in which the project works and their achievements to date. You can also visit ... http://self-help-housing.org/latch-launch-innovation-training-project/ . Self Help Housing.org's Director, Jon Fitzmaurice, responds to news of government funding to deal with problems caused by empty properties with a blog post on how self help housing can help tackle anti-social behaviour. http://self-help-housing.org/self-help-housing-part-of-the-solution-new-start-blog/ Housing Minister John Healey has announced funding to help councils tackle empty property and anti-social behaviour. £1million will be made available to 17 councils where anti-social behaviour focused around empty properties has been identified by local residents as a problem. The funding will be used to train council staff in ... http://self-help-housing.org/government-cash-to-get-empty-homes-back-into-use/ A new case study describing how a community based housing association, set up  to meet the housing needs of young black people in Camden has been able to use Temporary Social Housing Grant to cover the cost of repairing properties on loan from the local authority. To find out all ... http://self-help-housing.org/new-case-study-odu-dua-housing-association/ Almost 8,000 homes for Armed Forces families are standing empty despite the Ministry of Defence spending £17m a year renting substitute properties reports Housing News. http://self-help-housing.org/mod-criticised-over-empty-properties/ . The latest in our series of Case Studies of self help housing projects from around the country. B4box delivers quality building services to local authorities and other property owners in Greater Manchester and at the same time guarantees to employ and train a high volume of local people. Click here ... http://self-help-housing.org/new-case-study-b4box-greater-manchester/ . Third Sector reports that the Government's Grassroots Grants scheme has paid out £34million in its first year. Nearly 13,500 grants worth an average of £2,500 were distributed to community groups between September 2008 and September 2009. For details of how to apply for a grant, click here. http://self-help-housing.org/grassroots-grants/ Regen.net reports that the number of private homes standing empty for more than six months has risen above 300,000 for the first time in five years. http://self-help-housing.org/number-of-long-term-empty-private-homes-above-300000/ The National Week of Action on Empty Homes will run from November 22-29. The week is organised by the Empty Homes Agency to highlight the growing crisis of empty homes in the face of housing need. The Empty Homes Agency estimates that numbers of empty homes across the UK has reached ... http://self-help-housing.org/call-for-action-during-empty-homes-week/ Conservative Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps tabled an early day motion noting that of the 784,000 homes which are currently vacant, 327,000 have been empty for a period of more than six months; despite the presence of 1.8 million families on the social housing waiting list. The motion calls for an ... http://self-help-housing.org/early-day-motion-on-empty-homes/