Almost 90 people participated in the online event on September 10th to mark progress made in the years since the Coming Home report was published in 2021.

The report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community, Coming Home, challenged the Church of England to make responding to the housing crisis an integral part of its mission. The evening was divided into three sections (to see any slide presentation given, click on the relevant link):

What have we achieved?

Leaders from each of the main entities that make up the Church Housing 'ecosystem' summarised their work to date:

Beki Winter from the Archbishops Council Housing Project
Jon Sawyer from Church Housing Association
Dan Mayes from the Church Development Agency
Jonathan Tame from the Forum for Church Housing and the Church Housing Foundation

What does a local church housing project entail?

We divided up into breakout rooms to listen to in-depth accounts by people involved with leading an ongoing or completed project. We heard from:

Tolladine Mission in Worcester: Planning permission has been granted for four starter homes in a vicarage garden. They are now raising the finance needed, having selected a contractor and MMC builder.
St Edmunds, Forest Gate: a 3-way partnership to convert part of a church building into a Women's Urban Abbey. Providing five bedrooms and shared living on the first floor, with a chapel, women's day services and social enterprise below. Planning has just been approved.
St Johns, Walthamstow: a block of 11-15 flats next to the church. Planning has been going back and forth for a few years, and they are currently awaiting feedback on yet another set of designs to meet the demands of the planning authority.
Newbigin Gardens in Birmingham: this project will transform parsonage, glebe and neglected neighbouring land near Winson Green Prison into 17 social rent homes for one of England's most deprived communities. Planning decision is imminent!
St Johns, Radlett: an old church site was completely redeveloped to provide six affordable homes as well as a new church and community space; tenants moved in over a year ago.

Bishop Guli then led a panel discussion with Beki Winter, Jon Sawyer and Dan Mayes, responding to questions from the participants.

Part 3 – Where do we hope to be five years from now?

Bishop Guli finished by outlining the hopes and ambitions for the Church housing initiative over the next five years and beyond. She said, “I would love this statement to be true: that providing affordable housing in community becomes an ordinary, expected and mission-shaped use of Church land and property across every diocese, rather than an exceptional achievement dependent on a handful of pioneers.”

Watch the video recording (apart from the case studies) here.

‘Gathering momentum’ event: Five years of action on housing and community

C of E takes stock of its housing initiatives