Faith in Affordable Housing

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The Faith in Affordable Housing project gives information and support to assist churches in providing affordable housing. The project covers both urban and rural areas of England and is managed by Housing Justice, the national voice of Christian action in the field of housing and homelessness. It works with communities and churches of different Christian denominations; bridging the gap between churches, development partners and individual communities.

(NB At the time of writing there seems to be a problem on their website.   If you get 'Page not found', click on 'Home' to get to the site.  I haven't been able to provide a link to the July conference so far, it is under 'Events' on the site.)

The aim of the project is to help Christian churches to redevelop underused buildings and land for the provision of affordable housing. They promote partial church/site redevelopment into affordable housing, in order to release capital or income to transform the remaining space for continued ministry and mission, or to create community use in which the church has an ongoing role. They also help churches which are considering leasing unused land. Faith in Affordable Housing is building a network of housing associations, related organisations and individual professionals to assist churches and linking in with funding bodies that may be able to help with the development of feasibility studies.

Faith in Affordable Housing is organising a conference in July. 
 
Faith in Affordable Housing Conference
Using church land & property for affordable housing
7 July 2011 – 10 a.m. until 3.15 p.m.
Norwich Cathedral, The Hostry

The day comprises talks and workshops on topics such as best practice, planning and development, managing property portfolios, government policy, community engagement and community land trusts. These will be delivered by a range of national, regional and local organisations and the event will be opened by The Rt Revd Graham James, Lord Bishop of Norwich. The main objective of the conference is to support churches to find affordable housing solutions that are beneficial to them both financially and in terms of ministry. The conference will offer plenty of time for delegates to network and will provide space for organisations to publicise their work.