The Church in Wales is supporting a project aimed at making spare church space available for housing.The Faith in Affordable Housing project aims to address the nation's housing crisis by converting unused church property or land into homes.
The project is run by Christian charity Housing Justice and is looking to appoint its first project officer to work with Welsh churches.
The project officer will be responsible for identifying suitable space in rural as well as urban areas, with the aim of bridging the gap between churches and housing associations.
The project will provide support in the selling or leasing of closed churches and glebe land, as well as church halls and vicarages which are no longer used.
Alex Glanville, head of property services at the Church in Wales and a member of the project’s steering group said, “This is an exciting project which could benefit people in desperate need of housing. It will also help churches free up land or space they don’t use and enable them to invest more in the community.”
Tracey Bessant, Project Coordinator for Faith in Affordable housing, said, “The new officer will work with churches to look imaginatively at how land and buildings could be used for the future and facilitate partnership working between the church and charitable sector to deliver much needed affordable housing.”