Campaigning for local housing need

Case Study: St Barnabas and Christ the Saviour, Ealing

The housing crisis is evident in several ways in Ealing. Many are struggling to pay the high rent prices – it’s a desirable area, but workers essential to the life of the area are often on low wages or have insecure jobs. This forces families into cramped accommodation. Few can even dream of buying a house to feel secure in the area which they call home. Even those able to buy often have to work long, unsociable hours to pay the mortgage.

We know this because members of the churches there are going through these problems. Realising they needed to change something, St Barnabas and Christ the Saviour started a campaign about affordable housing. As Jackie Ashmenall from Christ the Saviour suggested, ‘churches, whether large or small, have a link into the community’ and also have the power to make change.

Both churches are members of Citizens UK. Citizens is an alliance of local community institutions – faith groups, schools, colleges and other third sector organisations – who work together for their common good, for the people they represent and for their community. Citizens advocates ‘community organising’ – campaigning based on one-to-one conversations which can reveal the problems facing the community. So, when the churches realised that secure housing was a real issue, they talked with members of their congregation to build up a picture of what wasn’t working.

When local elections came in 2018, they asked the other Citizens institutions in their area to work to fix these problems. Together, they represented a lot of people, and their institutions are integral to the local community. They wrote a list of ‘asks’ for the candidates to be leader of the council. The demands were presented at an assembly, where members of their institutions told their stories. The power of these stories and the coalition meant that all the candidates agreed to the demands, and they are now being delivered. The asks were:

To push developers to provide 50% affordable housing on all new developments in the borough
To extend selective landlord licensing across the whole borough
To run renters’ rights workshops
To identify a piece of land on which 50 Community Land Trust houses could be built

Jackie emphasised that churches also bring a unique perspective: ‘I don’t leave my faith outside the door’ when meeting with politicians. She’s really proud of the wins they have had, but she says the process itself has also been ‘so empowering’.

Why should churches campaign?

It can bring your congregation together. Sometimes in church we’re not good at talking about difficult things. Starting a listening campaign can help us hear about what’s affecting people, and that can break down barriers.

It can help your church work through difficulties. Having a listening culture within your church can help you resolve many issues.

Christ the Saviour Ealing believe they were able to work through a difficult discussion around the ordination of women because more members of their congregation had been empowered to speak through their listening campaigns.

It can help with personal development.

‘I’ve always felt that I didn’t have a voice, but when I [started campaigning] it just grew because I was given a seat at the table with the power makers’ – Jackie Ashmenall, member of Christ the Saviour, Ealing.

It can raise the church’s reputation in the local area. By talking about the issues that people are facing, your church will be shown to care about its area and be relevant to people’s lives. This will lead to new opportunities for the church. It has also brought people into attending church events and even meeting God.

It could build lasting relationships with other organisations. Campaigning with other institutions on one issue may lead to relationships which are mutually beneficial in the long run.

It addresses systemic issues. Churches who campaign say that it goes hand in hand with their other work. At the same time as showing mercy to those who need it, they want to build the kingdom of God on earth. Through this, they hope to reduce the need for their other areas of mission.

Churches are good at this.

We’ve got a ready-made community. This means that it’s comparatively easy to do listening campaigns.

We have people from different walks of life. Most institutions – whether businesses, schools or pressure groups – represent people with specific interests and experiences. While churches shouldn’t claim to be fully representative of the wider community, people can have very different life experiences within a church, and this means that you can show that you can reach different groups from whom the council may rarely hear.

It’s in our heritage. From starting Shelter to campaigning against pay-day loans, churches have shown themselves to be able to campaign successfully on the biggest issues of the day. Embrace that heritage.

What should you campaign about?

‘You can’t just assume as a church that you know what’s best’ – Revd Clare Dowding, St Paul’s Marylebone.

We have more information on assessing the needs of your community here. However, for many churches, the first step in campaigning is a ‘listening campaign’.

Listening

A listening campaign is generally made up of several one-to-one conversations. Although listening campaigns can be general – about all the problems someone is facing – they can also be targeted to a specific issue. So, you could ask people specifically to talk to you about their experience of housing in the local area.

In Ealing, for example, they had hundreds of conversations with people, each of which lasted between thirty minutes and an hour. This means that these campaigns can take months. However, while a longer listening campaign is beneficial, if you have limited time and a sense of the issues, this can be skipped or shortened.

‘The more conversations you have, the more you start to pick up certain things’ – Jackie Ashmenall, member of Christ the Saviour, Ealing

There is plenty of information on listening campaigns online. For example, you may want to check out this post on the Leading Differently blog or the Centre for Theology and Community’s advice on Community Organising. Some specific pieces of advice for churches are:

‘Look for the interesting people on the edges’ – Revd Justin Dodd, St Barnabas Ealing.

Don’t just talk to the people you always talk to – the whole point of a listening campaign is to hear voices that aren’t usually heard. One-to-one conversations can be a great way to hear these voices.

Publicise your listening campaign. Churches have found that showing that they are listening builds support for their campaigning.

Think about how you reach as many people as possible. For example, the Church Street Ward Neighbourhood Forum, employed an Arabic speaker to help them conduct their listening campaign. It’s also important to work with other faiths if possible.

Putting together a list of asks

Put together a smaller group of passionate people. It’s unlikely to be effective to try and draft your asks in a large group. Instead, get a steering group – perhaps of people who you’ve identified through one-to-one meetings – to come up with what you’re going to focus on, before putting this to the church and/or other partners.

Ask for something that’s possible. Making a difference doesn’t mean being unrealistic. It’s important – both for your church’s reputation and for achieving something – to be constructive. In particular, if you’re delivering a local campaign, think about what the local authority can deliver – not many powers are devolved.

Focus your demands around people’s lives. When we talk about issues, we should always be driven by what God wants, and the aspirations for his kingdom in the Bible. However, you’re not going to create utopia overnight. Focus on what’s truly needed, rather than what seems a good idea.

Be specific. Do your research on how people’s needs can best be met. For example, if you’ve identified that more affordable homes are needed in your local authority, explore where the housing is most in need. By being clear, not only do you provide accountability, you also show you know what you’re talking about.

Understand the other party’s motivations and plans. This will help you to set your asks in context and present your asks in the best way. If your ask inadvertently clashes with another important aim they have, see how this can be avoided to make success more likely.

Campaigning

Don’t doubt what you can achieve. Local churches’ campaigns have changed council policy, and they have led to the council giving funding amounting to millions of pounds to important projects.

‘Be bold. Think big. Change people’s expectations of what’s possible.’ – Allison Merritt Smith, Shieldfield Art Works.

Don’t treat this as separate from the rest of your church life.

Revd Justin Dodd, vicar at St Barnabas, said that ‘If you see it as a mission project you don’t see the full benefits’. Instead, to get the most out of it as a church and have the most success possible in your campaigning, ‘it’s about a culture of church, how you relate to each other and how you understand the gospel’.

Bring your campaigning into your Sunday morning services. Not only can this make sermons feel more relevant to people’s lives, it can bring more of your congregation into the work, while making an explicit link between theology and practice.

Use existing structures if possible. Is there a Neighbourhood Forum or similar in your area? It’s often worth supporting them rather than going out on your own. Not only will you build a coalition behind change, they will have existing experiences and relationships which will be crucial to your campaign.

‘No doubt you’ll find out there are already people of peace’ working for change in your area – Revd Clare Dowding, St Paul’s Marylebone.

It gets easier. As you build relationships, people come to respect you. This means that they will be less sceptical, and conversation becomes easier. Enthusiasm within your congregation may also build over time.

Be inventive in your campaigning. Petitions are great, but to capture hearts, minds and media attention, other methods can often be more effective.

A Methodist project in Newcastle called Shieldfield Art Works campaign against unjust redevelopment using art installations. For example, they are planning to plant twenty-five kilos of wheat to highlight what land is publicly owned in the area. Find out more about their work here.

St George-In-The-East put on a ‘Walk for Affordable Housing’ where they brought the community together to campaign for affordable housing while scouting out land around the area where it could be built. Find out more on their work here.

Share your stories. If you’ve done listening campaigns, you should have built up a bank of people who have experience of the issues you’re talking about. Share their stories if they are comfortable with doing so. If you’re holding an event, a particularly powerful thing to do is start by talking about your stories, laying out your asks and then asking politicians to respond.

People listen to bishops. Try to get the support of those higher up in your denomination. Campaigners have found that having the support of figureheads can make external partners more likely to listen. You may also be able to get funding for you work – whether for an event or for membership of Citizens – by asking those higher up in your denomination.

Don’t expect changes overnight. This is slow work, but it could be very rewarding.

Keep on top of changes. Long-term planning is not a strength of the political or development sectors! Plans and policies change relatively frequently. Make sure you’re on top of changes, or you may seem uninformed.

Don’t just take anything as a win. While it’s important to be realistic, realising when you can get more is also crucial. Compromise doesn’t mean accepting something that doesn’t meet the need that you’re trying to address.

When Ealing Citizens campaigned for land to begin a Community Land Trust, they specified an area where the housing was needed most. The council initially offered them a site in a completely different area, which would not have addressed the need. They are happy in hindsight that they turned this land down, as they got a more suitable piece of land instead.

Don’t try to do too much. Effective campaigning requires constraint. There will be natural periods of ebb and flow in your campaign. Your own energy and the receptiveness of other organisations cannot be kept up indefinitely.

Think about becoming a member of Citizens. Citizens is an alliance of local community institutions – faith groups, schools, colleges and other third sector organisations – who work together for their common good, for the people they represent and for their community. Membership of Citizens has been key to the success of many local church campaigns. Working with other local institutions can help you to have a bigger influence. Citizens also provides lots of resources, along with access to an organiser who can help to boost your campaigning efforts.

Building relationships in campaigning

Build positive relationships. You are a church, not a political party. Therefore, it’s important that you build relationships rather than shout. For one thing, you don’t want to ruin your reputation in the area by being unreasonable. For another, building relationships is the best way to achieve your aims.

Emphasise that you’re there to help them. The first step to a positive relationship is emphasising that you want one! Councils, for example, often act defensively, as most people they interact with are there to be critical.

Show you mean business. Some churches still encounter a slightly patronising ‘patting on the head’ approach from other organisations. Getting past this is important, so professionalism is key.

Demonstrate the support for your campaign. Can you get letters written in support? Can you turn people out at events? For more advice on demonstrating support, see the case study on Malachi Place.

Show the council what they’ll get out of it. As in any relationship, make sure that the council understands what’s in it for them. There may be political benefit, or you may be offering to contribute something to the scheme yourself.

Ilford Salvation Army were able to get £2.5 million from the council for supported accommodation because they were also contributing £1.7 million themselves. See our case study here.

Don’t rely on just one person as a link. Someone you’re talking to may not have the power to make change alone. Ultimately, both political will and institutional buy-in are needed – both councillors and council officers.

For more information, check out our more detailed case studies

Ealing Citizens

To find out more detail on the case featured above, check out our full case study.

Malachi Place

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Ilford Salvation Army wanted to provide sustainable housing for those at risk of homelessness, but they couldn’t do so alone. They ran a successful campaign to get £2.5 million funding and land from the Council for 42 self-contained modular units, which they now run themselves. Find out more in our case study.

St George-In-The-East

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Over the last two and a half years St George-in-the-East church in Shadwell, East London, has facilitated and won a campaign for affordable Community Land Trust homes on a piece of land opposite their church. Find out more in our case study.

St Stephen’s, Manor Park

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‘Building Community’ – a small, diverse team of congregation members (including both those in acute housing need themselves, as well as local professionals), who work to support and seek justice for local people around housing. As well as offering practical and immediate support, the group organises and campaigns for housing justice at a structural level, as a member institution of TELCO, using the tools of community organising. Find out more in our case study.

All of the advice and guidance provided in these resources is based on conversations with churches and organisations that are directly involved in responding to housing need in their local area. The advice in this sheet is thanks to:

Ilford Salvation Army
Shieldfield Art Works, Newcastle
St Barnabas and Christ the Saviour, Ealing/Ealing Citizens
St George-In-The-East, Shadwell/Tower Hamlets Citizens
St Paul’s, Marylebone

Housing Voice