{"id":601,"date":"2020-12-01T10:49:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T10:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/?p=8968"},"modified":"2020-12-01T10:49:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T10:49:46","slug":"homeless-outreach-in-the-winter-of-coronavirus-webinar-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=601","title":{"rendered":"Homeless outreach in the winter of coronavirus: webinar round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second in
\na series of three blogs addressing the homelessness crisis and the changing
\nresponse of churches to homelessness during coronavirus. You can read the first
\nblog, on the contexts of changing need and changing policy, <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. Explore further resources, including a recording of the webinar, <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.   <\/em><\/p>\n

On the afternoon of 24th<\/sup> November, the Joint
\nPublic Issues Team held a webinar in collaboration with Housing Justice<\/a>. This webinar addressed
\nthe changing landscape of faced by people experiencing homelessness this
\nwinter, and explored approaches to outreach which safely address those needs.<\/p>\n

Our three panellists were Jacob Quagliozzi, Director of
\nEngland for Housing Justice<\/a>, Jon
\nKuhrt of the Ministry
\nof Housing, Communities, and Local Government,<\/a> and Tony Miller, the
\ndirector of Whitechapel Mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This blog summarises the main takeaways from that webinar,
\nand picks out some of the key themes which we saw arising again and again,
\nincluding changes in need, safety provision, and a shift away from intervention
\nand towards prevention and advocacy work. <\/p>\n

Christians have long been involved in homelessness outreach,
\nbut the coronavirus pandemic has changed how that will look this Christmas.
\nEveryone In, the UK Government\u2019s scheme to house rough sleepers during the
\nfirst lockdown, showed that with the right political will, steps could be taken
\nto drastically reduce homelessness almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Suspension of evictions and some rough sleepers moving into
\nmore permanent housing have been some welcome good news, but it\u2019s certainly not
\nthe whole picture. Many housing situations have become more precarious, and the
\nWhitechapel Mission noted that there was no major drop-off in need and numbers
\nat the start of the lockdown, despite Everyone In.<\/p>\n

Responding to a
\nshift in need <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A few themes were prevalent in the panellists\u2019 discussions
\nof homeless outreach. One of these was the shift in need and demographic which
\nis being seen on the ground by people working among people experiencing
\nhomelessness. Whitechapel Mission have noted a marked uptake in people with
\ncomplex needs accessing their services, including mental health problems, and a
\ndemographic shift towards younger people, especially women. Tony, the Mission\u2019s
\ndirector, stressed the importance of matching our provision to the changing
\nneed, rather than thinking, \u2018how can we continue with what we\u2019ve always done?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cConstantly we had to just keep
\nasking questions: what are the needs? What do you require from us? And we will
\nsee if in a safe environment, and a safe manner, we can deliver any of the
\nneeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone In, he reported, just hadn\u2019t worked for everyone:
\nsome people seemed to have been excluded, couldn\u2019t stay in the accommodation
\nfor long because of their particular needs, or had just been missed. <\/p>\n

Despite this, Jon from MHCLG was positive about the
\ncollaborative nature of Everyone In. He celebrated the increasing occurrence of
\njoint work between agencies and organisations, especially encouraging collaborative
\napproach between churches and local authority on this issue, though still
\nhighlighting this doesn\u2019t mean a \u2018cosy\u2019 approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real need for robust
\nconversations and advocacy, and challenge. And that\u2019s something Christians, at
\ntheir best, can do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is more to do, and he sees churches having a
\nsignificant role in next steps around homeless outreach.<\/p>\n

Opportunity to move away from intervention based responses <\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Jon shared this diagram which outlines different kinds of response, and commented that the services suspended during coronavirus were mostly \u2018intervention\u2019 based work. For example, Winter Night Shelters will have a major drop-off in feasibility this winter. We can use this change in landscape as an opportunity to move towards prevention \u2013 encouraging churches to think about befriending and community services which might prevent homelessness in the first place.<\/p>\n

Jacob from Housing Justice concurred with the potential to
\nmove away from night shelters this winter. He made the case for advocacy work:
\nan important part of homelessness outreach which, again, could prevent
\nhomelessness before it becomes a lived reality. This could include promoting
\nmore affordable housing, or supporting calls for a more robust system of welfare
\nprovision. 2020 has been a tough year, but there will also be huge economic
\nchallenges in 2021, so the switch to this kind of advocacy work really makes
\nsense.  <\/p>\n

A welcome end to
\nnight shelters?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There was a timely reminder from Tony that it\u2019s important not
\nto confuse a reduction in rough sleeping with the end of homelessness, and that
\nthis and future governments make space to look at prevention work to make sure
\nwe stop homelessness before it happens. <\/p>\n

Our panellists highlighted that many people involved in
\nhomelessness outreach are ambivalent about the existence of night shelters and
\nfoodbanks. Ideally, we wouldn\u2019t have to do homeless outreach in the church,
\nbecause the safety net provided by government and organisations working locally
\nwould be strong enough to prevent rough sleeping and other kinds of
\nhomelessness in the first place. The panellists at the webinar seemed to all
\nagree that this moment presents an opportunity to pivot towards a preventative,
\npolicy-focused approach, which places advocacy and community at its heart. <\/p>\n

As Jon put it during the question and answer time,
\n\u2018homelessness is a lot more than rooflessness, and houselessness. Homes are
\nplaces of relationships, and identity, as well as being a resource \u2013 and this
\nis where the church can be significant.\u2019<\/p>\n

A prayer<\/p>\n

\n

Jesus<\/p>\n

We thank you that churches are able to provide community and hope for rough sleepers,<\/p>\n

and we pray that we would be able to continue to provide a spiritual home for many.<\/p>\n

As winter approaches, we recognise the challenges that people experiencing homelessness face, <\/p>\n

and we pray that these needs will be met both physically and spiritually.<\/p>\n

We thank you for those who work tirelessly to end homelessness, <\/p>\n

and we pray that from this difficult winter, you might bring forward hope.<\/p>\n

Amen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The post Homeless outreach in the winter of coronavirus: webinar round-up<\/a> appeared first on Joint Public Issues Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series of three blogs addressing the homelessness crisis and the changing response of churches to homelessness during coronavirus. You can read the first blog, on the contexts of changing need and changing policy, here. Explore further resources, including a recording of the webinar, here.    On the afternoon of […]
\nThe post Homeless outreach in the winter of coronavirus: webinar round-up appeared first on Joint Public Issues Team. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urc-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}