With the number of people experiencing homelessness rising sharply around the UK since the pandemic, this year’s Homelessness Sunday is an important way to raise awareness of the plight of so many who have become marginalised in our society, and to reflect on what we as Churches and communities can do to help alleviate a very serious problem on our doorstep.
Housing Justice organises Homelessness Sunday on the Sunday before World Homeless Day each year, and this year’s Homelessness Sunday falls on 8 October. The theme is ‘Love and Justice’ as this is a key part of Christian charity Housing Justice’s mission to alleviate homelessness across England.
The charity, which was formed from a merger between the Catholic Housing Association, The Churches National Housing Coalition and Church Action on Homelessness, provides a range of resources for Churches wishing to celebrate Homelessness Sunday including pre-recorded sermons, prayers, hymn suggestions, Junior Church resources, and information about homelessness via a dedicated webpage.
Housing Justice would also like to invite you to our first-ever Homelessness Sunday Service at St Mary’s Church, Upper Street, Islington, London N1 2TX at 3pm on 8 October. Please RSVP to me, Joanna Whitney, by email if you would like to join us.
Explore the Homelessness Sunday 2023 resources.
Churches or Churches Together groups wishing to alleviate housing need in their own communities can get involved in a range of different ways including volunteering at their local winter night shelter project, hosting an asylum seeker in their own home for a short period of time, or fundraising. If they have surplus or derelict land that they are considering using for affordable housing as part of their Christian mission, they can get involved in the Faith in Affordable Housing programme.
Through the Faith in Affordable Housing programme, Housing Justice helps churches to identify what they could do in terms of selling land to one of their approved panel of not-for-profit Housing Associations to alleviate local housing need, and upgrade or re-purpose spaces they wish to keep to meet their parishioners’ needs better.
Find out more about the work of Housing Justice via their website.
Housing Justice is a Charity and Network in Association with Churches Together in England.