Purpose of co-operative
For many of our members, Acre Housing Co-operative provides a secure and affordable home base, enabling us to live and continue to pursue our chosen careers which often, due to maintaining an arts-based practice and/or working part-time or casually, accrue low, variable and irregular income.
Location of properties
- Adelaide
| Number of properties | 8 |
| Number of tenants | 8 |
History
Acre is an artist-led co-op offering secure, affordable housing in Adelaide. It’s built on shared governance, mutual respect, and collective care.
Acre Housing Co-operative
Originally called Autonomous Co-operative Residential Environment, ACRE is a small, member-managed housing community in inner-city Adelaide. Its residents are all artists, or work in creative, cultural, or community-based fields. The co-op was established to support people whose work and lives often fall outside the stability of the mainstream employment and housing market — especially artists with precarious incomes.
Rooted in the seven international co-operative principles — from democratic member control to concern for community — Acre offers more than affordable housing. It offers a way of living built on mutual respect, shared responsibility, and co-operative values. It’s a model of living “apart but together” — where independence, community, and governance are held in balance.
Acre is a long-term, low-impact alternative to individualised living. It’s a space where residents are neighbours, co-owners, and stewards of a shared future.
Purpose of co-operative
Provide housing on a co-operative basis for low income small households with demonstrated ability to live in communal environments and in need of housing due to a commitment to one or more of the following
Provide housing on a co-operative basis for low income small households with demonstrated ability to live in communal environments and in need of housing due to a commitment to one or more of the following
- Artistic pursuits
- Environmental awareness
- Education and self-development
- Community service
Benefits of being in a co-operative
Being autonomous has allowed our members to gain valuable experience in governance and decision making processes which benefit and maintain our close community. Members individually acquire confidence learning organisational skills necessary for a co-operative to function professionally and compliantly with government departments. For some, this has led to achieving employment in vocational areas not previously considered.
Benefits of being a member of Common Equity
The decision to become part of a larger “umbrella” organisation such as Common Equity has been made to help prevent the sense of being overwhelmed by the increasing level of bureaucratic compliance expected from members who are also volunteers.
The move to Common Equity has provided us with a sense of protection from the isolation of being a small co-operative operating under the constant pressure s and uncertainties of future change in our political and economic environment
