Thought for the Week: The housing challenge
Jenny Brierley, from the Quaker Housing Trust, considers housing and homelessness
It all started, for me, with Cathy. Her homelessness in the 1966 BBC television play ‘Cathy Come Home’ fired people of all faiths, and none, into action. Inspirational work, by amazing individuals and organisations, including Quakers, changed lives and put housing back on the political agenda. Convinced that there is ‘that of God’ in all people, and accepting the implications of this belief spelled out in Matthew 25, the imperative to act seemed so simple and straightforward to me then. New legislation, extra safety nets, commitment and generosity by people across all communities, would make homelessness history, surely?
So why were Cathy’s children still homeless in the 1980s? And when did we start to lose the assumption in housing policy that ‘adequate housing is one of the standards by which a civilised society is judged’? (from a letter by Britain Yearly Meeting to the prime minister in 1993).
As individualism gained ground across many aspects of life, the housing options for the least well-off were shrinking rapidly while others were delighted by their expanding housing wealth. Our Quaker testimonies to justice, equality and community faced, and continue to face, a head-on challenge from a housing system that fuels and perpetuates a division into ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. It is a system that we are all inescapably part of. Maybe I cannot escape, but I still have the individual choice as to how far I challenge or acquiesce in the system. This was the point, belatedly, that the realisation dawned on me that my spiritual beliefs, personal choices and politics are inextricably linked. Trying to make sense of this in Quaker Worship became part of my life.
A couple of decades on, Cathy’s grandchildren are now facing homelessness too. As ‘losers’ in our deeply dysfunctional housing market, they encounter a new, more destructive, threat. Far from an inclusive and compassionate society, we experience an increasingly divisive and judgemental one. The denigration of people who are homeless and those living in social housing – by politicians who should know better, by the media (with a few honourable exceptions), by close neighbours and by complete strangers – has become alarmingly commonplace. Just think back to reactions, from The Sun through to senior members of the coalition government, following the riots in August. Categorising whole sections of our community, according to their housing situations, as negative influences on society, is a highly dangerous road to go down and damages all of us. Whatever else we may be able to challenge, confronting this ill-founded and perverse assumption is a good place to start if we wish to reassert the dignity and value of every individual.
A concern about housing cannot and should not be divorced from wider concerns about society, the economy and the environment. A just housing policy, as outlined in a document produced by the Quaker Housing Trust in 2009, Principles for a Just Housing Policy, goes hand-in-hand with economic justice and contributes to a less divided society. Good environmental stewardship requires us to think and act long-term, and globally, about the resources that our housing consumes. Recycling housing wealth, whether individually, as presented in Tony Crofts’ inspiring article in the Friend (‘The need for housing’, 16 September), or collectively, could be even more life-changing than recycling the physical resources we consume. Acting, campaigning and supporting others in pursuit of economic justice not only has the potential to create the sustainable and peaceful world that all of us need to thrive, but also offers the best prospects of a decent home for Cathy’s great grandchildren.
Jenny Brierley
Clerk, Quaker Housing Trust
www.qht.org.uk
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