£30,000 Grants and Free Expert Advice: Two Competitions Seek Church Projects Tackling the Housing Crisis

• Two competitions launched in 2020 to back church projects on housing
• Project Lab offered two £30,000 grants and places in a two-year incubator
• A second competition offered free expert advice to five church-led building schemes
• Examples included a church-hall benefits and housing advice service to prevent rent arrears

In February 2020 the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community launched two competitions to find and support church projects tackling the housing crisis in England.

The first, Project Lab 2020, run with the Cinnamon Network and funded by Andrews Charitable Trust, looked for church projects helping people with housing needs through mentoring, tenancy training and advocacy with landlords. Two projects would receive £30,000 development grants, and up to five would join the Cinnamon Project Incubator for two years of professional support, with finalists presenting to philanthropists and judges in July. One example cited was the Rev Dr Catherine Shelley, who set up “a benefits and housing advice service in her church hall to stop people falling into rent arrears.”

The second competition, Innovative Built Solutions for Churches, run with LivShare Consulting and funded by Allchurches Trust, aimed to help churches set up small housing schemes on church land and buildings. Five church-led projects would receive up to five days each of free expert advice, along with help securing funding and building partnerships. The Keswick Community Housing Trust, which used church land to “develop affordable homes for local people, who are being forced out of the area by the rise in holiday properties”, was held up as an example.

Together, the two competitions covered both sides of church housing work: helping people keep the homes they have, and building new ones.

In Jamaica, the first kind of work often happens informally, when a congregation helps a member with rent or offers shelter in an emergency. The second, building on church land, is rarer. A modest competition or seed fund run by a denomination, the Jamaica Council of Churches or a diaspora partner could help the best church projects in both areas grow. For renters at home and returnees trying to get settled, church-based tenancy advice could be as valuable as bricks and mortar.