Housing & inclusion

Found this quote on the Church Action on Poverty site by Polly Toynbee in the Guardian

They will never own a home like the 70% majority - though they can watch some 15 programmes a week celebrating property, from Location, Location, Location to Changing Rooms, garden make-overs, house hunting in the Dordogne and property speculation shows. If ever the have-nothings are themselves represented on the small screen, it's usually as bad parents of hoodies or spectacularly dysfunctional families to be gawped at with sanctimonious disdain. Or there are the class-swap programmes, where usually bizarre examples of "working class" women are swapped with middle-class aspiring mothers.

When we explored 'the widows mite' a few weeks ago some of the issues raised were about how we respond to systems of power - both in the church & as church in the wider world. I wondered about how the issue of housing & ownership relates to systems of power? In Cumbria this summer I heard stories of housing being out of the price-range of local people. This is commonplace around Britain. Anyway...in Wythenshawe we have a mix of housing - private and social. Most of the people I'm in contact with don't own their own home & I am not sure if it is an issue - except when wanting to move.
The way in which people are able to access 5 times their income is a system of financial power over another. Mortgages, which are near-permanent debt, are constructions of power over. Mortgages are by choice some may say.
In the context of the widows mite there is a struggle going on with overthrowing violent oppressive systems of power. The confrontation of the Gospel in this has been much watered down to juxtapose the wonderful generosity of the woman with the great showy offerings of the religious types.
Apart from falling into the binary interpretation of the story our renewal group were exploring around the great chasms of power within which we exist and are played in Wythenshawe. We also tried to include the church in this observing and naming the need for the church to be radically prophetic in relation to issues of power including financial systems.
In our group we have experiences of debt of different kinds: of cash flow issues, bank accounts, borrowing, mortgages, housing need, saving up, loaning to family & friends & being left short, ends not meeting, budgeting, cycles of debt and poverty are connected together.
There's so much more to share about it - like Church Action on Povertys encouragement to local churches to become 'Just Church'es. see their site for more info.