istockphoto

A Community Investment

Tuesday August 26 2014

Jackie Macadam highlights the work of Scottish Churches Housing Action in turning redundant church property into affordable housing.

IT’S a contentious issue and one that was raised by an Edinburgh commissioner, Willie Farquhar, at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May.

Do we as a church seek to maximise profit when selling church property, or do we try to take needs into account and perhaps sell at a lower price but help a local community investment instead?

One organisation trying to find a way through the issue is Scottish Churches Housing Action, in particular with their Whitebeam Homes project.

Jeremy Balfour is the charity’s property manager.

"Whitebeam is a project based in Arran but still in its infancy," Jeremy says. "We were given a fairly large donation by the United Reformed Church (URC) and instead of our initial idea – to build some social housing with it – we decided that a better solution would be to buy property and renovate it instead. On Arran, an island with a huge holiday homes market and high priced private rentals, it’s difficult for young families to get into a place of their own.

“A local old congregational church there at Sannox was sold and while the church was turned into a retreat and worship centre, we bought a house using part of the proceeds from the sale of the church and created social housing for a local couple who, even as a post office worker and a hospital worker, couldn’t find an affordable home.”

Part of Jeremy’s job is gauging the suitability of properties throughout Scotland for a change to social housing.

  “It’s a small start, but I am there when churches are thinking about selling off buildings or land and I am able to help advise them to decide what the options might be.”

The different projects taken up by the 12 partner churches in SCHA have ranged from knocking buildings down and building social housing with the help of local social housing groups and even using glebe land for building social housing.

They’ve noticed that often, when church buildings are converted or replaced with social housing, that the church’s links to its community are usually strengthened, rather than lost.

"In so many places where there is a high incidence of holiday home ownership, it’s almost impossible for locals to afford to get their own houses – either rented or owned,” says Alistair Cameron, Chief Executive of SCHA.

“Our original plans were always to set up a number of homes within the Whitebeam project, but we’ve had to cut our cloth so far, and the current priority is to raise capital to achieve more.

"We want to take the concept beyond Arran, and help other churches to think about social housing when they come to dispose of their property.

“We really see it as part of the holistic, missional part of the church’s work to help people who are vulnerable. It’s a mindset that some churches or congregations haven’t yet fully grasped. If they did, it could lead to a real sea-change in thinking in Scotland. There is such a surplus of buildings available."

This is an extract of an article in September's Life and Work. Subscribe here