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 this very serious problem on our doorstep.
We organise Homelessness Sunday on the Sunday before World Homeless Day each year, and this year’s Homelessness Sunday falls on 8th October. The theme is ‘Love and Justice’ as this is a key part of our mission to alleviate homelessness and the housing shortage in the UK.
Below you will find a range of resources to use if you are planning your own Homelessness Sunday Service either on 8th October or on another date of your choosing. These resources will be added to over the coming weeks and include pre-recorded prayers, hymns, homilies, Junior Church resources and much more.
Prayers
To help you mark Homeless Sunday 2023 we have prepared a selection of prayers that have been written by Housing Justice staff, volunteers and those we support.
You can access these here.
Below you can watch a video prayer by one of our friends and partners, Reverend Gethin Rhys from Cytun in Welsh and English.
Recording of ‘The Blessing’
Here you can watch a beautiful recording of ‘The Blessing’ by our talented Citadel Manager, Hayley, and her husband Tim.
As a young person, Hayley was saved from the brink of homelessness by friends and family – you can read her story here.
Hymn Suggestions
Here you can access suggested hymns for Homelessness Sunday 2023.
Here you can watch a beautiful acoustic recording of ‘In Christ Alone’.
Reading
The Reading for Homelessness Sunday 2023 is Matthew 21:33-46 which you can read here.
Homelessness Sunday sermon notes 2023 – here you can read notes on the Reading by the Right Rev’d Rob Wickham, Chair of Housing Justice.
Poem
With thanks to poet and friend of Housing Justice, Natasha Borton, for allowing us to share her wonderful poem ‘Home by Definition’ here.
This poem was commissioned by National Theatre Wales for their ‘Our Voices’ exhibition at Wrexham Library and filmed by Craig Colville.
Junior Church Resources
Here you can find all age resources.
Pre-recorded Homilies
Here you can watch a pre-recorded homily on ‘love and justice’ by Housing Justice Trustee and former Archbishop of Wales, the Most Reverend Bishop John Davies.
Here you can watch a pre-recorded homily from Deacon Tessa Bennett which talks about the work that her team is undertaking to alleviate homelessness, as well as Homelessness Sunday.
New HJC Video
Here you can watch our new Housing Justice Cymru video which tells you about our work across Wales.
How To Help People Affected By Homelessnesss
Got a spare room?
Find out more about hosting a destitute asylum seeker in your home in London or Wales.
Watch our hosting video here.
Got some spare time?
Could you consider volunteering for Housing Justice? Find out more about our Citadel programme in Wales here.
Does your Church have disused or derelict land?
We work with Churches who would like to address homelessness and local housing need by using their derelict or surplus land for affordable housing through our Faith in Affordable Housing programme. Find out more here about Faith in Affordable Housing in England and Wales.
Fundraising
There are a plethora of different ways that you can fundraise to support Housing Justice’s work – perhaps you could consider taking part in a Challenge Event or signing up for the £1K Challenge for Tackling Homelessness or Mini Challenge and raise £1,000 or £500 over the course of a year? You can find out all about it here.
Considering leaving a legacy to Housing Justice in your will?
October is Free Wills Month and Housing Justice will be offering free wills to supporters who would like to leave a legacy to Housing Justice. You can find out more – see Legacies Brochure.
Here you can find a range of resources about responding to local housing need.
Futher Reading
The Archbishop’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community was launched in April 2019 with the ambitious remit of re-imagining housing policy and practice. You can read their report ‘Coming Home’ here.
‘More than bricks and mortar’ is a resource from the Joint Public Issues team which gives key information, suggests action and provides questions for reflection.
‘A Place to Call Home’ is a series of six Bible studies for group discussion around a range of housing issues.
Charter For Christian Homelessness Agencies
Facts & Figures
Rough Sleeping – the numbers
Information sheet about families and children affected by homelessness
Compared to the general public, people sleeping rough…
- are almost 17 times more likely to be a victim of violence
- die 30 years younger on average
- The average life expectancy for men sleeping rough is 47 and 43 for women
When growing up…
- 2/3 of people who sleep rough experienced violence between parents/carers
- Just under 60% had a parent/carer with a drug or alcohol problem
- About half have been sexually and/or physically abused
- 1/3 have been bullied or have been suspended or expelled from school
- 25% have been taken into the care of a council as a child or young person
- A quarter were brought up in a workless household living on welfare benefits
- 15% reported that they often did not have enough to eat each day
England Figures
Official figures released in February by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show the number of rough sleepers counted on a single night in England in November 2022 stands at 3,069 compared to 2,440 for the same period last year. This figure represents a rise of 26% or 629 people.
The annual street count is a physical count of rough sleepers in all local authorities in England and is the government’s benchmark measure for progress towards its manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping in the 2019-2024 Parliament.
These numbers follow three years of unprecedented action on rough sleeping from councils and central government during the pandemic, so it is disappointing to see the pressures created by the cost-of-living crisis negating the positive impact of the ‘Everybody In’ scheme, ‘the Protect Programme’ and ‘Protect and Vaccinate’.
Faith and community groups often operate night shelters to support people experiencing rough sleeping during the coldest months. Housing Justice convenes the national network for these groups which provided 1,054 beds during the winter, meaning the street count would have been a third higher without those beds.
For a rough sleeper to be included in the count, there are strict criteria, with the government definition counting ‘people sleeping, or bedded down, in the open air (such as on the streets, or in doorways, parks or bus shelters); not people in buildings or other places not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or ‘bashes’)’.
