Housing Service

The Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has vacated its temporary office in Kailash, an educational youth residency under SAIIER, after the Funds and Assets Management Committee constituted by the Governing Board (GB-FAMC) instructed the Kailash caretakers and residents to hand over the building to the Housing Service by the end of May. [see article on page ….]

The GB-FAMC recently published “Procedures and Guidelines for the use and allocation of an Auroville residential asset,” aimed at transforming how housing is managed within Auroville.

The Working Committee approved by the Governing Board has issued “Procedures and guidelines for the use and allocation of an Auroville residential asset in the case of departure of an Auroville resident from Auroville or the death of an Auroville resident.”

The FAMC and Housing Service have announced a new housing policy, which has been endorsed by the Governing Board. Some of the key points include: An Auroville House User cannot be the user of more than one housing asset at a time; residential buildings shall be used only for residential use and cannot be converted into guest houses, homestays, offices or any other use; residential buildings cannot be used for any activities involving personal gain (e.g. renting or leasing of the residential building or parts thereof, use as an office for non-Auroville activities); an Auroville house user who wishes to leave Auroville for a period longer than one month, due to which the house or apartment in which the house will be unoccupied, must intimate the Housing Service so that a temporary house sitter can be accommodated during the absence of the Auroville resident; in case an Auroville house user leaves Auroville permanently, the house or apartment will be re-allocated by the Housing Service in accordance with the provisions of this policy; inheritance rights do not apply to Auroville properties since all properties are legally owned by Auroville Foundation, and not by persons who are using these properties.

The FO FAMC, in association with the Housing Service Team, is initiating a survey of the income generating and service units to gather asset-related information from these units to update the database.

Maurice Monier passed away on April 13th in his flat in Citadines. His friends at Citadines wrote: “Maurice was born in Saint-Étienne, France, on June 18, 1938 and would have been 85 in June.

The FA Housing Service recently announced that a dedicated team will be visiting communities to speak with residents. Community members can discuss any ongoing activities/plans that they are carrying out and if there are any challenges.

The RA approved Housing Board has also been removed from their positions, and have been locked out of the Housing Google accounts as well as the Housing Service office.

Lack of available housing threatens the growth of Auroville. The reasons for this are lack of planning, bureaucratization, ‘not in my backyard’ attitudes, over-dependence on government grants and bad economic policies.

We are fond of quoting Mother when she writes that Auroville will be a place for making experiments. But how easy is it to innovate in the Auroville of today?

Twenty years ago, generations of Aurovilians enjoyed the beaches and the sea. Now almost all the beaches and many Auroville houses have disappeared.

While it is one of the youngest Auroville communities, Courage is one of the largest. It has 104 residents drawn from 16 different nationalities: 30 of the residents are under the age of 18.

The idea of Sanjana began in 2011, shortly after Gundolf had moved into one of the new apartments he had designed in the Surrender community.

Two of the major challenges facing the community at present are a fragile economy and a severe lack of low-priced accommodation. Clearly, the two are interlinked.

Hemant Lamba, a member of the Working Committee, has for many years been concerned about transforming our housing situation, particularly to meet the needs of youth.

On Wednesday April 20th, the Residents’ Assembly Service announced the results of a vote called by the Auroville Council on a new Entry Policy and a new mandate for the Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC).

In the recent years, a number of new communities have come up. But residents of Inspiration and Maitreye I and II, all built by Auroville’s Housing Service, complain about bad designs and bad quality of construction.

The Housing Service and the Housing Board have concluded that as at present there are no funds available for housing for Aurovilians without financial means, it is not possible to accept any more new Aurovilians without them having the minimum funds for housing.

The Auroville Housing Policy stipulates that if a house steward has left Auroville for longer than 5 years, the stewardship lapses and the asset returns to the community, to be re-allocated by the Housing Service.