Mission
Our mission is to mobilise Christian action on homelessness and housing need through love, justice, advocacy and nurture.
Vision
Our vision is of a society where everyone has access to a home that truly meets their needs. This means a secure and genuinely affordable home, in a neighbourhood where an individual can access work and services that enable them to flourish.
Values
The values which underpin the work of Housing Justice are:
- Respecting the worth and dignity of each individual – Caring for the whole person
- Believing in social justice – Priority to the marginalised and those experiencing poverty
- Working for the highest quality in all we do, inspired by excellence and professionalism
- Having authority – Being recognised as a trusted source of expertise and information
- Valuing difference – Welcoming diversity in staff, services and those whom we serve
- Working in partnership – Recognising the strength of working in partnership with those of all faiths and none
- Having integrity – Accountability to each other and to all our stakeholders
Strategic Plan
You can download our most recent Strategic Plan here:
Housing Justice mobilises churches and other faith/ community groups to take action to address homelessness and housing need in the many forms it takes. Specifically we:
- Support and fund church and community groups to play their part in addressing rough sleeping locally in a safe way. This includes providing emergency accommodation.
- Support church and community groups to develop other local responses to homelessness and housing need.
- Link people with spare rooms up with destitute migrants and support them both as they share a home..
- Support churches to identify ways they can use church assets for the benefit of those who are in housing need or homeless.
- Engage in initiatives to prevent repeat homelessness such as our Citadel project.
- Raise awareness amongst Christians about homelessness and housing need.
Context
The pandemic caused a major shift in policy and practice around rough sleeping and homelessness. In England under the “Everybody In” scheme rough sleeping reduced by half and for many in our network there has been a shift away from communal night shelters, the traditional way the church has responded to rough sleeping. In areas of high numbers of those sleeping rough communal night shelters are returning.
In Wales they have moved away from people needing to be in “priority need” to be assisted by the councils and so night shelters are no longer needed. Church groups have turned towards a new project called “Citadel” which helps people to settle into their new homes and maintain their tenancies, in a number of practical ways.
There is a great need for more support for migrants and we have grown our work in this area across Wales. Also our Faith in Affordable Housing (FiAH) project, where we work with churches to help them to turn church land into affordable housing, has grown in England and Wales as we work hard with churches to help them to play their part in increasing the supply of genuinely affordable housing.
Strategy 2023 – 2026
We will:
Use our voice and:
– Act as a conduit between our network, UK and Welsh governments and sector organisations to further the Christian and community voice and role in response to rough sleeping.
– Seek influence to promote the interests and well-being of those in society who experience homelessness and rough sleeping, including developing and promoting best practice models of emergency accommodation.
Highlight our Christian distinctiveness by:
– Using our voice to press for change for the benefit of those we serve. We will focus on the need for change highlighted by those in our network and use our influence to effect that change.
– Holding a Christian Leaders event to provide a forum for exploring what is distinct about being a Christian Leader and firming up on how we use our distinctive Christian voice.
– Continuing to develop Homeless Sunday in order to create an environment for church debate and church action.
– Engaging with the ongoing work to deliver on the recommendations of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing and Community where it relates to the mission of Housing Justice with the Church Housing Foundation.
– Continuing to be a partner in the Remembrance Service at St Martin in the Field.
– Exploring other opportunities for Christian services that help us and our network to explore our role as a Christian community.
Develop partnership by:
Working with other organisations and statutory bodies to tackle homelessness issues that arise during the next three years.
Support those experiencing homelessness:
– By working intensively with our network to help them to explore and develop safe and appropriate responses to homeless, with the support of the GLA, DLUHC, and Welsh Government.
– By continuing to lever in funds to pass out in grant to our network.
– By relaunching the Quality Mark accreditation scheme to reflect the changing landscape in rough sleeping services.
– By continuing to provide support for destitute migrants in London and across Wales, informed by the experience of those who have used our services. As the environment for those with No Recourse to Public Funds harshens, we will be mindful of our unique place to support them and be creative in our response to their suffering and needs. Currently we are supported in this work by The Oak Foundation, Trust for London, Welsh Government, Comic Relief, Airbnb, The Lesley Aldridge Trust and Paul Balcombe Trust.
– By conducting a piece of research that leads to an action plan that addresses changes in volunteer patterns since the pandemic.
– By developing our new Citadel model – standing alongside those who have experienced homelessness and helping them to rebuild from a place of strength.
– By exploring partnerships with other organisations around prevention of homelessness.
Work with churches and congregations to meet housing need through the use of church
land:
– We will continue to deliver our Faith in Affordable Housing model in Wales, enabling churches to turn church land into high quality affordable housing, and helping churches to explore other creative ways of addressing housing need. This work continues to be funded by the Nationwide Foundation.
– We have developed and launched a partnership framework with housing providers in Wales to create a self- financing, sustainable model for delivering genuinely affordable housing on church land in Wales.
– We will develop a model of FiAH in England which is replicable and / or scalable in order to agree medium term funding for the project working in collaboration with the Church Housing Foundation.
Ensure our charity is well run by:
– Having strong governance that provides direction and oversight through Board meetings and the sub committee structure. This includes ensuring that the voice of the guest is heard through our Involvement Sub Committee.
– Ensuring the highest standards of safeguarding practice is observed by staff and volunteers alike.
– In recognition of our growth and improved finances we will invest in our centre in order to free the senior team up to explore further growth that aligns with our mission, vision and values.
– Maintaining a tight grip on our cost-effectiveness so that maximum resources are devoted to our core purpose.
– Diversifying our funding base to support our work by exploring new funding sources to build on those we already have.
Ethos
In the Gospels, Jesus gives us a new commandment, that we love one another. Just as Jesus loves us, so we ought to love one another. By this everyone will know that we are Jesus’ disciples, if we have love for one another.
In the spirit of Jesus’ words, and inspired by the reflections of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we believe that in order to flourish, every community must realise that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The marginalisation of the weak leads to a broken humanity.
We work across all Christian denominations, whilst acknowledging our Anglican and Roman Catholic roots by inhabiting the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Having said that, we welcome staff, volunteers, trustees, supporters and guests from all faiths and none. We do not expect anyone at Housing Justice to subscribe to the Christian faith, just to understand and acknowledge our values.
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