The Diocese of London hosted a series of three Housing Summits in 2021 hosted by the Right Revd Graham Tomlin on the following themes.
You can find all of the resources from those evenings below.
Housing Summit Part 1: Practical Parish Responses
Housing Summit Part 2: Prophetic Action and Pushing for Change
Housing Summit Part 3: Putting our Own House in Order- Affordable Housing and Use of Church Land
Housing Summit part 3: Putting Our Own House in Order
Unlocking the Church’s Assets to provide affordable housing
We held the third of our three-part summit on Thursday 4th Nov 2021.
Here are the resources from that evening.
The recording of the event is below and here
Presentations
Speaker information & Contacts
We explore what we can do to unlock church assets, in the cause of providing truly affordable housing for our local communities.
Together we had a fast paced rich and deeply encouraging evening with many expert speakers. Time Codes from Video also included
00.06.50 Nicola Thomas, Chaplain for Housing, Bristol: Why this is part of the mission of the Church
00.18.37 Rachel Wooden Specialist Housing Occupational Therapist, and Ordinand:Why do we need to partner with local authorities
00.30.05 Jacob Quagliozzi, Director of Housing Justice England: Stories of hope from the national Faith In Affordable Housing programme
00.42.12 Revd Graham Hunter, Vicar of St John’s Hoxton: Charting a course: Learning from an affordable housing project as a local church in London
00.55.05 Rhiannon Winstanley-Sharples, Housing Organiser, St George in the East: The Story of Modular Housing, turning dreams into reality in East London
01.01.54 Jez Sweetland, Director of the Bristol Housing Festival: Re-imagining Bristol as a better place to live for everyone, through modular housing options
further resources and reading
Housing Summit Part 2: Using our Prophetic Voice, and Campaigning for Change
We held the second part of our Housing Summit on Thurs 16th September, 2021.
Here are the resources from that evening.
The recording of the event is below and here.
presentations
Peter Brierley’s and Clare Dowding’s presentations can be downloaded below.
Bishop Graham’s article in the Spectator about the Cladding Scandal and struggles for leaseholders in the wake of Grenfell is here
Speakers information
Pete Brierley, Assistant Director, Citizens UK, set the scene by exploring stories and themes of the struggle for decent housing in London.
- He is on twitter: @Petebrierley
- an article he wrote about the work Citizens are doing round Housing in London is here
Rev Graham Hunter, St Johns Hoxton - in conversation with Lorraine Kinnear, PCC member and long standing resident - on where to start and the importance of listening to local community need
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Graham is on twitter @RevGrahamHunter
- Graham and Lorraine’s church is St John’s Hoxton, and their website is here
Jackie Ashmenall, Christ the Saviour Ealing and West London Citizens on how to engage local powers, telling the story of their campaign working with local councils to create Community Land Trusts (CLT).
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Jackie’s blog on what they have been doing with West London Citizens is here and an article from Housing justice about The Ealing Community Land Trust is here
- Christ the Saviour church where Jackie is involved is on twitter @XtheSaviour
- their website is here
Rev Clare Dowding, Rector of St Pauls Marylebone, tells the story of how their church has encouraged an estate presence. They have used ‘neighbourhood plans’ as a way of giving voice to local residents, and building long term relationships with their local authority
- Clare is on twitter @revdclare
- St Pauls Marylebone church website is here
- You can get in touch with Clare here
Steve Day, HTB & national End Our Cladding Scandal campaigner on leveraging power nationally to change things.
He tells the story of how God has time and again equipped & empowered him for what he calls his “accidental campaigning”. As one of the leaseholders caught up in the post Grenfell Cladding scandal, he tells the story of seeking justice and safe housing for millions of people.
Housing summit part 1: practical Parish Responses
We held the first part of our Housing Summit on Thurs 29th April, 2021.
Here are the resources from that evening.
The recording of the event is below here.
Presentations
Information & Contacts for Speakers
Jon Kuhrt is the Faith Advisor on Rough Sleeping for the Government. Email him here.
His blog is HERE.
Jacob Quagliozzi is Director for England for Housing Justice. Email him here.
You can sign up to their Winter Night Shelter newsletter HERE and the London e-newsletter HERE
Rose Hickman manages the Home for Good Volunteer Befriending Project at The Passage. Email her here.
Adeola Ogunade runs Hope4All Housing Surgeries church training events. Email her here.
A blog about her work is HERE.
Jenna Roberts manages the Housing Justice Hosting Scheme. Email her here.
Ed Walker runs Hope into Action, helping churches give homes to those who are homeless. Email him here.
We heard from experience of those in churches across the Diocese:
- Claire from St James Piccadilly who are setting up a befriending project for volunteers with The Passage
- Fr Ben Kerridge, Holy Innocents Hornsey, who has been part of the Hosting Scheme with Housing Justice
- Fr Joseph Fernandes, from St Hilda’s Ashford, who is using a church house in the parish to house women coming out of prison, in partnership with Hope into Action
Resources and Reading
“Why the church should prevent homelessness not just react to it”
A helpful article, summarising much of the themes of this evening, originally written for the Housing Justice website, can be found HERE.
The Coming Home Report
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing’s report, “Coming Home” , and associated resources, can be found HERE.
“Why the Church should Care About Housing” Grove booklet
This Grove Booklet by +Graham Tomlin can be ordered HERE
Practical Responses
Housing Justice have put together a brilliant resource helping the local church think about practical responses to homelessness and housing issues. You can download it HERE.
All the presentations from this evening and further practical resources about the projects mentioned and more will be posted here shortly.
prayer
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the labourers labour in vain” (Psalm 127)
Believing that prayer changes things, we are setting up a prayer network of people who want to commit to praying for the housing crisis and those who are vulnerably housed in our city.
We’ll issue bi-monthly prayer updates of specifics to pray for. Our first one will be issued in May.
If you would like to join, or you have things we can be praying for please let us know HERE, marking your email “prayer”.
KEEPING IN TOUCH
To hear about more support we offer churches in their work serving their local communities compassionately and working for justice, sign up to our monthly newsletter HERE.
