Mary Ann Johnson is a small - but very active! – housing cooperative.

We are now in the process of expanding the co-op and looking to buy another property to house our newest members – a woman and her son, who have struggled with terrible precarious housing (including getting evicted twice in less than one year!). We are again reaching out to all our friends and supporters to ask for donations or loans towards buying that property.

Why should I support MAJ?

Before going into the financial details, it’s important to stress that any contribution will go far beyond housing just this one family – the flat we buy will remain forever in common ownership and, in the long term, will be used as an asset that will allow the co-op to grow and house more people.

This might not solve the housing crisis, but it will remove one more property out of the hands of greedy landlords and give it back to the community. We honestly can’t think of a better way to use our collective resources!

Find out more about our housing co-op

The ask

We need to raise a total of £200K in the coming months and we are asking our friends, comrades and supporters to contribute towards that goal by making a one off donation.

We appreciate times are hard, but if you happen to have a bit of money burning a hole in your pocket (or conscience) and want to put it to a good cause, then we would be happy to speak to you 🙂.

After donating (thanks!) please share our appeal with anyone you think could contribute: rich relatives, your housing co-op, that wealthy colleague, your former housemate with a trust fund, your reading group.... In the past people donated anything between £100 – £20,000, so we know there is money in our community and every donation makes a difference (if you plan to make a donation of over £300, get in touch on maj @ haringey.org.uk)

We are also raising loanstocks towards the cost of the house – these are loans that are given to housing co-ops for a set period of time (minimum five years, but, ideally, longer) and are repaid in full (as a single sum) at the end of that period. Please speak to us if you would like to hear more about loanstocks.

With gratitude, love and solidarity,

MAJ Housing Co-op members