Communities Creating Homes – Meet the Team
Sahar Alhakkak-martinez – Communities Creating Homes Intern
I’m the new intern at CCH! I have a background in architecture and am an active participant of youth-led projects in Wales. My role is about engaging with people from diverse ethnic minority backgrounds on their housing needs. We want to increase awareness around community-led housing as a real, affordable and feasible alternative for people that are typically underrepresented in the community-led housing movement.
It is well documented that people of diverse ethnic minority communities experience discrimination and difficulties in housing, my own experiences are far from pleasant. But more and more I’m able to see and believe in a better possible world.
Mark Purcell writes that “we must be willing to demand and imagine a possible world, even if that world is impossible under the conditions that exist now”.
Hope is key; I feel that the Communities Creating Homes team at CWMPAS supports and facilitates it. Together with the CCH team, we intend to establish community-led housing as an understood and widely recognised possibility for everyone in Wales, regardless of your background or circumstances.
Tom Bateman – Community Led Housing Engagement Coordinator (South Wales)
My name is Tom, I live in Hirwaun, and am new to the Communities Creating Homes team.
I am passionate about South Wales’ history of collectivism, co-operation and democratic ownership. In the face of multiple crises, I believe we badly need that radical spirit today.
As the Community Led Housing Co-ordinator for South Wales, I’m hoping to play my small part in spreading & promoting collective forms of ownership, with a focus on the housing sector.
TL;DR Vegetarian. Cyclist. Collectivist. SW Valleys.
Osian Gwyn Elis – Community Led Housing Co-ordinator (North Wales)
S’mai! I am the North Wales Community-Led Housing Coordinator based on the Llŷn, deeply committed to supporting people and communities. Throughout my career, they have always been at the heart of everything I do.
With 25 years of experience in the housing and homelessness sector in Wales, I have worked extensively at both operational and strategic levels. I am passionate about the Welsh language and culture and strongly believe in the importance of preserving and protecting both for future generations.
Additionally, I have a long-standing interest in social enterprises, and for the past 18 years, I have served as a director of Tafarn y Fic, the oldest community cooperative pub in the UK. My role is to assist and support community groups in exploring community-led housing. Cysylltwch am sgwrs!
Ceri Owain-Lynn – Community Led Housing Co-ordinator (West and Mid Wales)
Hello I’m Ceri, 1 of 3 community led housing co-ordinator. Long title…put simply my role is to promote the work of community led housing throughout Wales, so that more groups and communities become aware of Community Led Housing and it’s benefits. I have a background in Housing Law and believe very strongly that a safe home is the most important thing. A stable home ensures that we can do everything else we want to do in our lives. I work with groups to help them reach out to their local communities to try and spread the word about their project. I also assist groups who want to publicise their work more widely, and generally meet up with people right at the start of their project, when they might not have a clue what they want to do yet! I am based in West Wales but love travelling around the country to hear from people in person about their ideas.
André van Wyk– Community Led Housing Engagement Co-ordinator (learning disabilities)
I am passionate about people and dedicated to ensuring that the voices of young people with learning disabilities remain at the heart of the Community Led Housing process. As the Engagement Co-ordinator for Dream Home Swansea (My Life – My Home), I work closely with individuals, their carers, and other stakeholders to support their participation in these vital housing projects.
My role involves forming and facilitating friendship groups for young adults with learning disabilities, liaising with carers’ working groups, and engaging with steering groups to maintain active involvement in the development of these initiatives. I also support the promotion of Community Led Housing projects, including through marketing and managing social media presence.
With a background in media and storytelling, I aim to ensure that each person’s story is heard and represented, working across Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, and occasionally further afield.
Claire White – Community-led Housing Enabler
I am a Community-Led Housing (CLH) Enabler supporting and guiding community groups through the complex process of developing their own affordable housing projects taking their initial vision to create an action plan to ensure success and helping groups to work well together. This includes collaborating with local authorities, housing associations, and community groups to ensure that housing projects are feasible and sustainable in the long-term. I am also a trustee of the UK Community Land Trust (CLT) Network, the national charity and membership body for CLT’s championing greater community ownership of land and assets.
“I believe community ownership of land and assets is the best way to create places where people love to live, work and spend their time. CLH can give ordinary people a say in what happens where they live and crucially can help to create the genuinely affordable, quality, homes that communities need.”
Kath Robinson – Community-Led Housing Enabler
I am a Community-Led Housing Enabler covering North Wales. My role is all about advising and supporting grassroots community groups who want to create new affordable homes in their area. I have many years’ experience in the third and social housing sectors, specialising in engagement, marketing and communications. In my spare time I enjoy reading, learning and volunteering as a Trustee for a local homelessness charity. I live on Anglesey with my husband, children and cats.
Jonathan Hughes – Community Led Housing Advisor (Development)
I am a Community Led Housing Development Advisor within the Communities Creating Homes Programme team at Cwmpas where I work on the various aspects of the development process from site identification, through design, feasibility, planning and funding to the procurement of construction works and completion.
I have over 30 years of experience in taking a leading role in the delivery of complex housing developments and physical regeneration projects in the Registered Social Landlord (RSL), local authority and third sectors including Housing Renewal Area and Empty Property Strategy projects and a range of retrofit, newbuild and building conversion projects from inception to completion across the communities of Wales. I’ve held held senior management positions at Grwp Gwalia and Pobl for almost 10 years as Director of Development, New Business and Asset Management.
I’m also a Board Member at Tai Tarian and Aelwyd Housing.
Casey Edwards – Community-led Housing Programme Manager
I joined Cwmpas (then known as the Wales Co-operative Centre) and the Communities Creating Homes programme in 2017 as a Community-led Housing Enabler, supporting communities across Wales to take action to address their housing need. In 2023 I took over as Programme Manager, and my role now mainly consists of influencing policy makers and key stakeholders to make it as easy as possible for communities to develop affordable community-led homes.
In 2014 I completed an MSc in Sustainability, Planning and Environmental policy, focussing on urban regeneration, and began working in the third sector, and have never left. I’ve worked on small scale urban regeneration projects, arts projects, community health and wellbeing initiatives and for a large social housing provider. I am passionate about co-production, community participation and local people having a voice and a choice in what happens in their communities.
In my spare time I love to be outdoors running (slowly), walking (very fast according to friends and family) or in the kitchen cooking up a storm with a glass of red in hand.
