Life Together: Could communal living be the solution to our housing crisis?

With home ownership in decline, rents rising rapidly and social-housing waiting lists at a record high, it's time to face up to the fact that we have a totally dysfunctional housing market.

With warnings of an "unprecedented crisis" in housing to follow and a predicted downturn in ownership to a level not seen since the 1980s with roughly 4.5 million people on social-housing waiting lists in England and it is estimated that private-sector rents will increase by almost 20 per cent over the next five years!

As young adults with children living in such a fast paced and expensive climate it is increasingly hard to find the time to socialise and create an experience for both yourself and your children to grow and develop.

We are four friends that have known each other all of our lives and are being impacted with the social segregation that comes alongside modern living and work.

Because of these issues of modern day life, we have decided we want to experiment with the concept of communal family living, to help create a colorful and social environment that our three children and our self’s can all grow and thrive within this modern, fast paced society.

We have researched into communal family living, there are countless case studies from around the world where it is successful and has been beneficial to the children their families.

SO......

This is where we are looking for your help :)

Our two families live at opposite ends of the country and are trying to meet in the middle, we are asking for help to raise the money to find a property, fit for purpose to rent on the outskirts of Bristol, so we are all close to our families.

The amount we are trying to raise around £6000 or as near as we can to cover the cost of a deposit, first months rent on a property along the agency fees and the cost of moving two family's from either end of the country.

We would be extremely grateful for any one who feels they can help towards our goal as it would benefit our self's and our children in so many ways. As we are sure many of you know the daily grind of life can take over and hinder the amount of social interaction, due to simply not having enough time which can sometimes effect your mental well-being. For any mothers reading this, being at home on your own during the maternity period can be very isolating and with both Emma and Chanel full time mum's and expecting again, the benefits of company and living communally would help to relieve that stress endlessly.

We are also going to start a blog titled “Life Together” to document the experience and to give people who may be thinking of making the move into communal family living, the opportunity to read about the effects it has on the social and communal creatures that we all are.