Homefullness

In this episode, host Zola interviews Zahra Lightway about her tour of eco villages across Australia, India, and Europe.

The conversation explore what made the ecovillages she visited successful, mainly a robust governance system, income-earning programmes and opportunities, a shared worldview (values and beliefs), and mission-driven activities.

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In this episode of the Homefulness Show, host Zola Rose engages  with Jo, the chair of the Hemp Builders Association in New Zealand, and Barbara, a resident of a hempcrete home, to explore the benefits and potential of hempcrete as a sustainable building material.

Jo discusses hempcrete's ability to sequester carbon, its role in mitigating the housing...

Zola explores the concept of regenerative real estate with Neal Collins, founder of the Regenerative Real Estate Podcast and Choose Latitude. The discussion delves into transformative housing models that prioritize sustainability, community engagement, and affordability.

Zola shares her personal journey of finding a suitable site for her tiny home, emphasizing the importance of shifting from an ownership mindset to a stewardship a...

In this episode, host Zola Rose discusses what creates successful community-led housing (CLH) with guest Thomas Moore, a senior lecturer in Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool.

They explore the concept of Enabling Hubs, a practical form of advocacy infrastructure, and why these Hubs are so important for overcoming the challenges communities face in achieving affordable and sustainable housing for themselves.  Tom ...

In this special episode of the Homefullness Show, host Zola Rose sits down for an engaging interview with her daughter Oriah, a law student at Otago University in New Zealand.

They explore Oriah's unique upbringing in an off-grid homestead in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Topics include their unconventional home setup with indoor and outdoor 'loos,' the transition from a suburban lifestyle to a self-sufficient homestead, their meani...

Sophie, a public works advisor at Land Information New Zealand, discusses her PhD in law, focusing on achieving housing affordability through collective housing, and cooperative housing in particular.

The conversation covers various aspects, including the lack of research and public awareness on collective housing in New Zealand, her personal experiences with different housing systems in Europe, and the role of local and central go...

In the latest episode of the Homefullness Show, I interview Trypp West, the founder of an urban community called Springfed in Boulder, Colorado (USA).  He describes the founding of Springfed, a community that started as his thesis project and has continued for the past three years. The community operates on a non-residential model with the meeting place being his rented farmhouse where they hold fortnightly potlucks and Sunday gard...

 Gentle density is a term in Australia for infill housing development in urban areas, to create more housing within existing neighbourhoods, also known as incremental development in the U.S. 

In this episode, I interview Mark and Lynda Utting on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland Australia.  They share about their way of developing housing in their backyard to give a great place to live to the future residents. 

They are able to do t...

The Sharing with Friends housing model was born out of a burning desire for housing justice for single older women who are in the "missing middle"--who do not qualify for social housing but also can't afford market rental or to buy their own home and who are living on the edge of housing insecurity. 

The unique co-housing model provides an affordable, secure, and connected way of living where five women, who self-select, share a sp...

In our latest Homefullness episode, I interview Chloe Howorth on the HomeShare for Her program located in the Nelson-Tasman region of Aotearoa NZ.

The program addresses the lack of affordable housing and the lack of available housing for single women. Because in our region, according to a Stuff article in April 2023, it says “low wages and expensive housing make the Nelson Tasman area unaffordable” with our housing being the third ...

If you're frustrated by the amount of rates that you pay and the increasing rates that many councils are doing, you are not alone.  Many people complain, “councils, all they care about is money.” And yet, they have increasing expenses & responsibilities to pay for with less income--a gap that's been widening over decades.  The amount of income that they're able to generate through rates is not covering all the things they're re...

In this interview with Greer O'Donnell of The Housing Innovation Society (THIS) and The Urban Advisory (TUA), I speak with her about a growing demographic in housing--the missing middle--as well the increase in people who wish to have more say in the kinds of housing that they want to create and how they want to live in that housing. The New Zealand Housing Survey was created to be able to capture this information.

We speak about t...

The fastest growing demographic who are vulnerable to housing insecurity and unaffordable housing is older women.  Many of these women have been valuable contributing members of their communities and working professionally yet find themselves in housing precariousness later in life due to a range of systemic societal and economic factors.  

The Housing Older Women Movement believes these women should have a say and be able to parti...

In this interview with Aksel Bech, we are tackling housing unaffordability and the levers within legislation, policy, and at the local government level that are available to be able to create better outcomes for housing.

I reached out to Aksel because he and I care deeply about addressing this housing unaffordability problem in Aotearoa NZ and he is leading the way on housing reform in his local area through The Housing Czar, a hou...

In this episode, I interview Sam Stout and David Diaper who are homeowners of the Secure Home programme in Queenstown, as well as Corina Sommerville who is a staff member with the programme. I really like this program is because keeps housing affordable for generations into the future.

Secure Home is an assisted ownership program created by the Queenstown Lakes, Community Housing Trust.  Designed as a stepping stone to independent ...

I interview Peter Southwick, a Trustee of the Bridge Housing Trust in the Waikato, on their land trust model for affordable home ownership. We discuss how this model works, could be replicated around the country, as well as what levers need to be pulled to make it happen. Bridge Housing Trust has replicated the successful “Secure Home” model from the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust (QLCHT) where the cost of the house to ...

This episode is a recording of the Women Revolutionising Housing (WRH) learning and networking event where Ruth Gerzon, a WRH member, shares about her efforts championing for housing justice in her hometown of Whakatāne, in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ruth and others formed a group called the Whakatāne Housing Action Reform Enthusiasts which makes the acronym WHARE, which means home/house in Te Reo Māori, to address the housing justice i...

In this first episode, I share why I've started the show, the housing challenges that propel me to do this work, and what you can look forward to learning.

With this platform and network, we can catalyse housing and neighbourhoods that are places of belonging, of home, while also providing solutions that address some of the biggest challenges of our time.

You will also hear a beautiful song by one of my neighbours at Riverside comm...