Annual Hope into Action: Black Country Review A Local Response to a National Crisis How we are seeking to respond to the homelessness and refugee crises in the Black Country
Contents The Story So Far... Written by Matthieu Lambert The Story So Far... 3 Hope into Action: The Wider family 4 5 The Homeless Crisis 6 The Refugee Crisis 7 David: A story of redemption for an ex-offender 8 Mubarak: A Refugee s Story 9 Aims and Outcomes 10 Our Model 11 Thank you to all our partners 12 Vision Every Church, lovingly, providing the homeless with a home. The vision for Hope into Action: Black Country was birthed out of Grace Church Wolverhampton. My wife and I moved to Wolverhampton five years ago to help plant Grace Church with Newfrontiers. As part of this we began reaching out to people on the fringes of society with a small measure of success, but without really seeing these individuals breaking free from their cycles of poverty of resources and identity. We longed to be more effective in seeing captives set free and we came to the conclusion that providing stable accommodation, as well as building healthy positive relationships, was key to seeing lasting change. We started exploring different options that would allow us to open a house in partnership with Grace Church to provide not just a house but a home to some of these individuals. As we researched, we came to realise that there were few Christian organisations working in the area of housing in our region and even less churches. One house in partnership with our church would be a great place to start but how about providing homes in partnership with other churches right across the area. The only organisation that we could find that would enable us to partner churches with homes for the purpose of housing the homeless was Hope into Action in Peterborough. They were looking for individuals or organisations to trial run franchising their model in different areas and so we signed up to partner with them in December 2013. They provided training and a partner manual as to how to implement their housing model and ongoing support in getting us up and running. By September 2014 we were opening a pilot house in partnership with Grace Church for three lads who had joined the church as a result of their work among the poor. By autumn 2015 we had opened three further properties, two for generic homelessness and two specifically for refugees, allowing us to provide accommodation and support for 12 individuals. Our aim is to enable churches across our region to open 50 or so properties over the next 10 years with a view to seeing the church making significant impact in the fight against homelessness. 2 D hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton @HiABlackCountry facebook.com/hiablackcountry 3
Hope into Action: The Wider Family 2016 Hope into Action National Conference on housing the homeless and refugees The Wider Family... Hope into Action: East of England started with its first house in Peterborough in July 2010 for 2 tenants. They now have: 15 in Peterborough 5 in Nottingham 6 in Norwich and 2 in Cambridge Through franchising there are now Hope into Action homes in the following cities: Wolverhampton (x4) Lincoln (x3) Reading Eastbourne Swindon Ipswich Hope into Action: Black Country so far... Launched Hope into Action: Black Country DEC 2013 Opened our first house SEP 2014 1st Opened our second house SEP 2015 2nd More than 80 people who were formerly homeless are currently being housed in 36 Hope into Action properties in cities across the UK. Opened our third house (first refugee home) OCT 2015 3rd Opened our fourth house NOV 2015 4th Hope to open our fifth house soon 2016 5th? 4 D hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton @HiABlackCountry facebook.com/hiablackcountry 5
The Homeless Crisis... Nationally 3500+ rough sleepers every night in Britain (Homeless link) 9% of adults in the UK have had first-hand experience of homelessness (2015 Crisis Report) 54,000 households officially accepted as homeless in 2014/15 (Crisis Report) In our area: West Midlands comes second only to London in terms of the number of recognised homeless households by the local authority 34% increase in Rough Sleeping in the West Midlands in the last 12 months 30 people sleeping rough on any given night in Wolverhampton City Centre (according to Wolverhampton Homeless Outreach) Yet, most homeless people are hidden in B&B s, hostels, or sofa surfing. And the single greatest cause of rough sleeping in the UK is the loss of accommodation provided by friends or family. With such a precarious situation the hidden homeless can easily end up being forced to sleep rough. The Refugee Crisis... Applications for asylum increased by 63% between 2011 and 2015 The UK has agreed to accept 20,000 Syrians over 5 years There are more than 30,000 asylum seekers in G4S dispersal accommodation around the UK Nearly 10,000 asylum claims were accepted in 2015 (All stats provided by the Refugee Council Report from February 2016) Refugees are particularly vulnerable to homelessness due to a range of factors including their lack of understanding of the housing system, language and cultural barriers and also a lack of support network (most have no friends or family in the UK). Once a claim for asylum has been granted, the refugee is given 28 days to vacate the accommodation that had been provided to them by the government. They have access to public funds but no access to deposits to find housing in the private sector and the waiting lists for council housing are currently extremely long. Migrants from Eastern Europe are also vulnerable to homelessness. They have to work for a year in the UK before they can qualify for public funding and if they lose their employment, they often find themselves homeless and destitute. 34% increase in Rough Sleeping in the West Midland in the last 12 months 6 D hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton @HiABlackCountry facebook.com/hiablackcountry 7
David: A story of redemption for an ex-offender David is an ex-offender who spent three years in prison. During that time he gained a BSc with honours in Social Sciences. He also took his Personal Track Safety course before his release and secured a job working on the railways. Sometime after his release he moved into a Hope into Action house in Wolverhampton. He has faced a barrage of obstacles from probation services, the police and social services. Yet he has shown great grace in his compliance with these agencies and at the same time maintained a strong and healthy relationship with his girlfriend. Despite all the odds, he continues to fight with courage and strength in pursuit of the family life he so desires. Mubarak: A Refugee s Story he continues to fight with courage and strength in pursuit of the family life he so desires. He has also kept his job for over a year now, working night shifts at least 1.5hrs from home, whilst managing to study part-time for an MSc in Railway Risk and Safety Management. He recently was given a promotion at work. He recently told us that with everything else going on in his life and all of the opposition that he is facing, it is amazing to be able to come home to a place where he feels like he can be himself and is not judged and he can lead a normal life. Mubarak is one of our refugee tenants. He fled his home country of Sudan following his village being destroyed by the Janjaweed. He fled through Libya, spent 13 days on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea and then across Europe into France where he spent a number of months in a refugee camp. Mubarak has been in the UK for a few months now. When he was finally granted asylum, he was told he had 28 days to move out of his government provided accommodation and had nowhere to go. Mubarak ended up homeless, sofa surfing with another asylum seeker. But then his friend had his asylum granted and they were at risk of both being thrown out onto the street. Many refugees end up in similar precarious situations, living in accommodation that is not fit for purpose and working in chicken factories. These two refugees are now housed in a home run by Hope into Action: Black Country. Mubarak has engaged brilliantly with his empowerment officer and has been offered a place at University to study engineering in September. It has been a life-long dream of his to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, who is an electrical engineer. Our aim is to help our refugee tenants to fulfil their potential and discover the world of opportunity that is out there. 8 D hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton @HiABlackCountry facebook.com/hiablackcountry 9
Aims & Outcomes OUR MODEL Our aim is to mobilise, unite and unleash Christian prayer, investments, donations and volunteering to fight injustice and release the oppressed. In the last year we are delighted to announce that various tenants have secured employment, successfully completed training courses, reestablished links with their family and reduced their dependencies on drugs or alcohol. We monitor the following outcomes for our tenants: Outcome % Have maintained their tenancy 87% Have abstained from crime 86% Have volunteered 27% Have maintained Education, Employment or Training 67% Have improved family relations 33% Have reduced serious alcohol or drug use 60% Ed Walker who is the Executive Director of Hope into Action: East of England explains that: Our belief is that homelessness and the other issues our tenants arrive with are purely symptoms. The root cause of their sufferings, 95% of the time, is relational poverty. Our aim, therefore, is not just to provide tenants with a home but also a richness of relationships they have never before experienced. Success to us is church volunteers, getting out of their pews, engaging with our tenants in a meaningful way and our tenants feeling loved. It is from the security of these relationships that these outcomes have been achieved. Investor An investor buys a house with advice from Hope into Action, leases it to us, and remains anonymous. Hope into Action manages and maintains the property. House Typically a terraced or semi-detached house in a good area. Hope into Action Staff Professional staff from Hope into Action carry responsibility for admin, rent, council housing, social services and so on. Tenants 2 tenants per house: each has 2 rooms and shared common areas. They pay a modest rent and share bills. Church Support Group The local church group is free to focus on what it does best - building friendship with tenants. Training and help comes from Hope into Action. Our theory of change is that if we provide an individual with not just a house but a home and a rich social capital of positive healthy relationships, then they will find the motivation within themselves to bring about the change in their lives that they so deeply desire. 10 D hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton @HiABlackCountry facebook.com/hiablackcountry 11
Please consider supporting us... It goes without saying that achieving our vision of one house, per church, per community can t be done on thin air. We strive to keep administration costs down to a minimum (and indeed believe we run at far lower costs than other homeless charities). Nevertheless we need money to run. If you feel that this organisation is something you would like to support then please do get in touch....and finally a big thank you to all our partners Individual givers: You are too many to mention by name, but we are grateful for every penny given. Investors: Whilst we cannot name you in person we want to thank you for investing to help the homeless. Churches: Grace Church Wolverhampton Tabernacle Baptist Church International Life Centre Holy Trinity Heath Town Donors: Lloyds Bank Foundation Church Urban Fund Wolves Aid 176 Wolverhampton Street, Bilston W14 0LZ 07910 757 392 M blackcountry@hopeintoaction.org.uk D www.hopeintoaction.org.uk/locations/wolverhampton F www.facebook.com/hiablackcountry L @HiABlackCountry Registered in England and Wales No. 8966039 - Registered charity No. 1157102