Dumfries and Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust (DGSCHT) is conducting the review as the first phase of their project, “A Model for Post-Covid Living”, funded by the National Lottery’s Emerging Futures Fund.
DGSCHT provides support around the planning, development and delivery of community-led housing in Southern Scotland.
They are currently working with 15 community organisations, both rural and urban.
A significant element of the trust’s work is oriented towards helping to deliver projects that benefit from the Scottish Government’s Rural Housing Fund.
The survey will consider the manner in which societal impacts around the pandemic have influenced housing and related space, working towards a house type that can address these impacts through design and aligns to the parameters of affordable, community-led housing. The purpose of the survey is to consider the experience of individuals relative to living in their homes across the duration of the pandemic, particularly from the perspective of spending more time within the living environment and considering specific aspects such as working from home or outside space.
They want to know what has changed for people and what could be improved upon, prospectively through design.
The survey can be found at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PostCovidLiving
Following on from the poll, the next phase of project delivery will involve undertaking a range of workshops with the community organisations with whom DGSCHT is already working.
Chief executive at DGSCHT Mike Staples said: “All aspects of our work and planning as an organisation are now being influenced by the impacts of the pandemic.
“We know that community-led response has demonstrated incredible strength over the course of this year.
“As well as appraising impacts, we want to use this project to develop a practical, deliverable response, within the context of community-led housing in Southern Scotland.”
And Mr Staples added: “The greater, more diverse the response we can achieve from communities across the South of Scotland, the more informed we can be in the development of the project.”
