“Housing Justice saved my life” – Housing Justice Lent Appeal 2020

February 10, 2020

Your gift could change a life like Cecile’s…

Cecile’s husband was murdered – all for the crime of being politically active. That’s why she had no choice but to flee her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She came to the UK in desperate need, searching for safety in 2008.

But the Home Office rejected her asylum application. Suddenly she was left without entitlement to any public benefits, stripped of her freedom to work. Destitute, she soon became homeless, forced to spend nights on the sofas of friends – and when she couldn’t, she turned to strangers, even sleeping on public transport.

Worse still, Cecile had cancer, and urgently needed chemotherapy. But because she was homeless, this lifesaving treatment was an agonising wait.

But everything changed when Cecile was referred to the Housing Justice Hosting programme by a migrant centre.

“I always remember Housing Justice in my prayers”
– Cecile

The Housing Justice hosting team matched her first with a young couple with a spare room and later with a house of Salesian nuns. During this time Cecile was finally able to start the chemotherapy she desperately needed. And almost a year later, she was granted leave to remain in the UK. She now has a place of her own.

Without the kind donations of people like you, Cecile would never have found safety .

Cecile has responded well to her chemotherapy, and for the foreseeable future she doesn’t need treatment. She is still in regular touch with her former Hosts and Housing Justice and says she remembers both in her prayers.

This Lent, will you send a gift to Housing Justice and be there for someone else like Cecile?

Donate now

Please, bring hope to someone like Cecile this Lent…

  • £25 could fund essentials for one destitute migrant like Cecile in our Hosting Project for a week.
  • £50 pays for a place at one of Housing Justice’s training sessions or conferences for night shelter workers and volunteers – sustaining these vital places of sanctuary.
  • £500 could fund move on costs for one individual from a Winter Night Shelter, helping them to leave rough sleeping behind.

 

In the last year, thanks to your support, Housing Justice has:

  • Provided more 200 night shelter beds;
  • Supported more than 500 people  to leave homelessness behind, for good;
  • Supported more than 40 destitute migrants in our Hosting Project.

 

Donate now

Thank you so much.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?”
– Isaiah 58:6-7 (NIV)