Wigan
“People call it social action, but we’re not social workers, we’re just a group of people doing God’s loving service, getting alongside and walking with people”.
St Barnabas is situated in one of the most deprived parishes in the country. The area is made up of several social housing estates where unemployment is high and drug and alcohol abuse related-issues are common. The church’s action on housing is two-fold: supporting those in immediate crisis who are facing evictions, and a long-term project to build a supported accommodation block and community hub on the church site.
In the parish there are high rates of rent arrears and eviction notices, and housing issues are heavily entwined with the benefits system. The bedroom tax has been a particularly significant problem for the community, exacerbated by the shortage of smaller social housing properties. Reverend Denise Hayes, who was Parish Priest from 2014 until 2019, told the story of one woman who had been trying to downsize for over a year. However, because of a shortage of smaller council properties she cannot move and must consequently find £14 per week from her other benefit income, which in her words is ‘very difficult’.
Both Denise and two recovery co-ordinators from Addaction – a substance misuse service which works with the church – became particularly concerned about the implications of the housing element within universal credit being paid to tenants rather than directly to landlords. This is deterring landlords from letting to vulnerable claimants. Denise said:
“When you’re dealing with addiction, are you going to buy drugs, or are you going to pay your landlord?” Compounding this, she explained how there is a lack of adequate and appropriate supported housing in the Wigan local authority area: people get moved out of the community to be detoxed and when they come back they have nowhere to go, so end up being taken back in by users and dealers. It’s a vicious cycle that we need to break”.
Growing out of a church-run food bank, they started helping people who were in rent arrears and facing eviction, by assisting with reading and writing letters, making phone calls, and accompanying individuals to court cases and hearings. Many of those supported come into contact with the church through the daily drop-in, which is based in the church hall and hosts a range of community organisations including Debt Advice and Addaction, as well as the food bank which now operates as a community shop.
Denise told the story of Tina, a woman who was moved from a hostel and was placed in a three-bedroom house in the parish; unable to afford her rent and bedroom tax, she had got into arrears to the point that she was served an eviction notice. Denise felt that her presence alongside Tina as an advocate in meetings with council officers and her court hearing enabled the case to be taken more seriously. She stated: ”People take notice…the collar speaks”. Tina has now been awarded a Discretionary Housing Payment to cover the rent, enabling her to remain in the property.
The second aspect of the housing activity at St Barnabas is their plans to build a nine-bedroom supported accommodation block on church land for those recovering from addiction. This will sit within a purpose-built hub of services including a community café, offices for debt and benefits advice and other services, a crèche, and laundry and shower rooms, all on the church site. For Denise, this was a response to hearing about a local man who had come to the drop-in and subsequently committed suicide; she felt that “if he could have had the kind of 24/7 support we’re building now, he could be alive today.”
As well as being a space for the whole community, the new hub will become a vital part of the rehabilitation and after care package for those in the supported accommodation. ‘You’ll be here until you have everything you need for recovery and you’re feeling confident enough to settle back into society and community’, John from Addaction said. The initiative is a collaboration between the church and the Partners Foundation, a registered social landlord that specialises in supported housing, who they came into contact with through a volunteer who used to work with them.
Partners Foundation are covering the planning and architect fees and some of the building costs, alongside managing the project and the building, once completed. The council have been very supportive of the plans throughout. The Head of Wigan Council’s Drug and Alcohol team has been closely involved, and the council have agreed to fund a number of professional staff to work at the hub when it opens. They have been in conversations about how people will be supported and housed permanently once they move on from this accommodation.
Denise moved on in 2019, but the drive in St Barnabas has allowed this work to continue. Although her successor Revd Rachel Sheehan works across four churches rather than two, the volunteers have ensured that this does not affect their work. In fact, when the parishes merged, the more affluent churches have provided extra donations.
“The church is here to serve the community, to be a place of light and hope at the heart of the community… We stay when everyone else goes.”
In October 2019, the new hub received planning permission. They have also secured £1 million to fund the supported accommodation, and are putting together a funding proposal for another £1 million for the rest of the work.
This work is an expression of their faith and the wider mission of the church. Denise explained that ‘The church is here to serve the community, to be a place of light and hope at the heart of the community… We stay when everyone else goes.’ Ann Fairhurst, one of the team leaders in the church’s community ministry added: ”People call it social action, but we’re not social workers, we’re just a group of people doing God’s loving service, getting alongside and walking with people”.
The church’s dual approach of providing personal advocacy support to those in an immediate housing crisis at the same time as longer-term support through the supported accommodation goes beyond just meeting material needs. It is building community, relationships and social capital, in an area where that is particularly difficult. Ann, one of the team leaders in Denise’s volunteer team, said: ‘A lot of people who come here don’t have family or support networks, I’ve seen a community develop, and become a family, we look out for each other’. The asset-based approach that Denise and her volunteers take, which seeks to empower and enable parishioners to have the resilience to manage future situations, is key to this. Steven, for example, was an ex-addict, who is now living onsite as caretaker of the church, volunteers at the drop in, and is evidently an incredibly valued member of the church. John and Wayne from Addaction commented on the uniqueness of the ”wrap-around support network of friendship and care” provided by the church. He continued: “you don’t get that anywhere else… it’s not going to go when the funding runs out”.
The depth of trust which had developed between the church, the local council, and the host of other community agencies it works with – most notably Addaction – is evident in the admiration the two support workers had for Denise and her church, though not Christians themselves. These partnerships have been crucial to the flourishing of the church’s action on housing, particularly the supported accommodation.
The work has not been without obstacles. For example, some of the longer standing members of the congregation in St Barnabas, where the drop-in is based and where the outlet will be, have sometimes been resistant to change, with a number being less supportive of the plans for the hub.
Requirements
Personnel
Drive and vision are clearly central to the work. This ministry has evolved at the local parish level, without any significant support or direction from the deanery or diocese, demonstrating that such wider support is not essential for successful housing action. A committed team of volunteers have supported Denise and then Rachel in the activities, but they have still carried a lot of the burden of responsibility in addition to the rest of their duties as parish priest. Denise explained: “This kind of ministry puts a lot on you, it’s very hard to go home and switch off… the struggles people have can weigh on you”.
Tips
Denise’s piece of advice for other churches was: ”it’s about working with what you’ve got and trusting in God, because if you wait until you’ve got everything in place, you’ll never start”.
Building relationships with other agencies is vital for this work. As Rachel explains ‘We don’t have all the answers, but there are people who do’.
Rachel also urges people to ‘be bold and courageous’ in this work, because you are unlikely to suceed without that.
She also reminds people that this work is about empowering people where possible, not doing it for them. While sometimes it may be quicker to fill out a form for them, sitting with them as they do it will help them to do it themselves next time.
People within one parish may have very different lives, especially in different churches, and they may not realise the level of housing need. To maintain passion and momentum in her churches, Rachel explains that ‘I’m just really purposeful in telling people what I do on a week-to-week basis [to work with those in need].’
For more information, visit St Barnabas’s Facebook page.