How to use these Resources

Does your church want to respond to the housing need in your area? These resources are for you.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community partnered with Housing Justice to release these resources. We believe that the varied programmes shown in this set of resources provide an approach for almost every church. Whilst many churches do great work reacting to homelessness, we want to encourage a more diverse range of responses, particularly where they focus on preventing – not just reacting to – homelessness. Read our news release to understand how these resources came about, and to see the other work that came out from the Commission.

This guide lays out your options, what resources you need, and some helpful hints along the way. All the advice in these resources is the result of extensive study of existing work that churches are doing to meet the housing needs of their area. Some projects have succeeded, a few are yet to get off the ground. This has given some great hints of best practice alongside a lot of learning points.

This is meant as a starting point, not a step-by-step guide. Every church is different, and communities have varied needs, so there’s no blueprint for this work. But learning to avoid the biggest pitfalls and embrace the successes that others have experienced will set you up to work miracles.

The resources are a mixture of guides and case studies. The case studies show you what you could achieve, but they also give some quick hints of what resources the churches had and some advice based on their experience. There are a few introductory resources, and then the rest are in five toolkits on different types of response. If you want more inspiration, check out the Housing Commission’s blogs. Some of the case studies featured have been recreated here, but many more haven’t.

These resources would not have been possible without the churches, organisations and individuals up and down the country who contributed their expertise. Thanks to all of them. A list of the case studies which contributed to this is here:
  • Revd Ali Boulton, New Housing Hub
  • Ambleside Methodist Church and St Mary’s, Ambleside
  • Anniesland Methodist Church
  • Balham Community Church
  • Boaz Trust and Arawak Walton Housing Association
  • Churches Together in All Lincolnshire
  • Cornerstone, Cranbrook
  • Crossway United Reformed Church, Elephant and Castle
  • Depaul UK and Nightstop
  • Diocese of Bath and Wells
  • Diocese of Chelmsford
  • Diocese of Gloucester
  • Ealing Citizens
  • Hope North London and church@five
  • Housing People, Building Communities
  • Keswick Community Housing Trust
  • Leeds Methodist Mission in the City Centre
  • Leytonstone United Free Church
  • Lighthouse, Leeds
  • LivShare Consulting
  • Malachi Place, Ilford and Ilford Salvation Army
  • Newbury Almshouses
  • Nine Elms Arts Ministry
  • One Roof Leicester
  • Penny Marsh, Pioneer Minister in Ebbsfleet
  • Pye Green Christian Centre and Green Pastures
  • Selig (Suffolk) Trust, Ipswich and Hope into Action
  • Shieldfield Art Works
  • Southampton Churches Rent Deposit Scheme
  • Tunbridge Wells Quakers
  • St Andrew’s, Dent
  • St Bride’s, Trafford and Trafford Housing Trust
  • St Edward the Confessor, Mottingham
  • St Barnabas, Wigan
  • St George-In-The-East
  • St George’s, Stamford
  • St Mary’s, Walthamstow
  • St Paul’s, Marylebone
  • St Silas, Blackburn and Nightsafe
  • St Stephen’s, Manor Park
  • Sue Steer, Pioneer Community Worker, New Lubbesthorpe
  • Together Leicester
  • Vicar’s Relief Fund, St Martin-In-The-Fields
  • West London Mission
  • York Central Community Forum