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Leading up to October’s Church & Affordable Housing Conference, BCCN is showcasing initiatives within the Christian community.
Third in the series is by Jonathan Bird, head of Shalom Seekers.
IN JULY, Shalom Seekers issued Indicators of Christian Interest & Action for Affordable
Housing in Metro Vancouver, second in a series
of reports investigating the potential of the Christian community for
seeking the wellbeing of our city.
With funding from World Vision Canada and City In
Focus, researchers polled pastors to gauge their congregations’
perceptions of the housing crisis, as well as their interest in options for
providing secure, affordable homes.
Pastors believe interest in responding to the housing
crisis peaks with themselves, and decreases gradually as they look to their
church leadership, then to their parishioners, and finally to neighbours of
their churches. Most pastors sensed their congregations agree that housing
relates to the church’s ‘real business.’ However, their
parishioners need to be persuaded that providing affordable homes and
related supports ought to be a missional priority, and then need to be
shown a range of feasible actions.
Already, 75 percent of responding churches are open to
having their buildings used occasionally for emergency shelter. Half of
them are open to developing affordable housing on their parking lots or
other property, and would be more likely to do so with government partners
than with other churches or parachurch agencies.
Pastors believe the top three causes of homelessness
are rent increases, addictions and mental illness. They think their
congregations would agree about the top three causes, but would name
“refusal to work / welfare mentality” as the fourth. Pastors
placed this cause ninth out of 10.
Choosing from 15 groups most in need of housing,
pastors feel their congregations have the most concern for women and their
children fleeing domestic violence, and then roughly equal concern for
low-income seniors, youth at risk and low-income families.
This probably means congregations are interested not so
much in people who are homeless, but rather in people who are at risk of becoming homeless.
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Researchers compiled an inventory of non-market housing
in the Lower Mainland under Christian management. More than 6,500 beds and
suites were tallied across the housing continuum (from shelters to
independent apartments), and for many different resident groups –
demonstrating the church has very broad expertise in this sector.
Christian agencies and churches supply 763 homeless
shelter and safe house beds out of the 1,073 in Metro Vancouver. Clearly,
the emergency housing system would collapse without Christian
participation. Even so, emergency housing accounts for just over 10 percent
of the stock managed by Christian agencies. By far, the bulk of Christian
housing (56 percent) is for seniors.
It appears the Christian housing sector needs to add
many units in order to match the concern of congregations for those needing
affordable homes. Of the 15 groups most in need, only seven have more than
100 beds and suites dedicated to them. Congregations are most concerned for
women and their children fleeing abuse, yet these households occupy less
than one percent of the beds and suites under Christian management.
Church & Affordable Housing Conference 2008 runs October
17 – 18. Sponsors include: The Salvation Army, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada,
Baptist Housing, Union Gospel Mission, City in Focus and BC Christian
News. Contact: www.shalomseekers.com.
September 2008
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