27th June 2023: Interview with Jon Canessa

Jon, tell us a bit about you! 

I currently work at Newcastle Cathedral Recovery Church. We walk in solidarity with those who are recovering from addiction. I used to be one of the associate priests at St Paul’s Church in Cambridge, and I was the Chaplain for Street Life and Roofless Community.  

And how were you involved in CCHP’s establishment? 

I remember convening a meeting back in 2010 with the local authorities and with people involved in homelessness; we really wanted to do something about the growing number of homeless people that we could see on the streets. At the time, Chris Jenkin was involved with a Christian organisation called Hope Cambridge and we established the idea of roofless people sleeping in churches. There were seven churches that took it in turns to provide accommodation and a hot meal for two months, for ten people. Over the years it just grew bit by bit, the numbers increased from 12 to 15 and we had more churches involved. This meant we could share the burden and the responsibility. 

At that time, CCHP was basically a group of volunteers and it needed a registered charity to enable it to bank donations and to have some kind of governance. Initially, that was done under the umbrella of Hope Cambridge, but as CCHP grew we realised it needed to become its own charity. So, we appointed Trustees and I became Chair. 

How do you think CCHP has helped Christians respond to homelessness? 

At the time, I don’t think churches knew how to respond to homelessness. They were either wary or frightened of it. I think the default setting for many churches when a homeless person comes through the doors can be ‘how do we get rid of them?’ Whereas I think churches getting involved with CCHP enabled church communities to meet the individuals and to see that they were people just like you and me. So, they would see beyond the label and connect as human beings. Over time I think the culture across all of the churches in the city shifted to one of welcome. I think CCHP was a blessing because it was directly showing hospitality to our homeless guests. They directly challenged our assumptions and prejudices around homelessness and actually ended up being a huge blessing to our churches. They made them more compassionate, understanding, welcoming, hospitable environments. So, they ended up being the blessing that transformed us. 

CCHP found a way for churches to be able to engage with homelessness and actually our churches really liked the fact that they had found a role. People from the congregations would volunteer overnight. They wanted to ensure people’s safety and wellbeing, to clean the church or to help cook meals or prepare the cooking. They wanted to serve with CCHP.  

Can you tell us a bit more about your own work with the homeless and why it’s important to your faith? 

I feel I have a calling to work with homeless people. In the past I’d become a bit disillusioned with church. I couldn’t connect the Jesus of the gospels with the activities of a Sunday morning so I stopped going. Instead I used to make flasks of tea and coffee (and if I was organised some flapjack!) and I used to go around the city on a Sunday morning just making sure people were OK.  Back then there were warmer places behind Parkside swimming pool, where people used to bed down because the hot ait would blow out through the fence. People also used to sleep in the hollows inside the skate ramps. I used to just go around and check up on people and I used to take a couple of beers because when people are struggling with chronic alcoholism they get severe withdrawal symptoms. You get the shakes and you can die. It struck me as I was going around and building relationships with these people that every college has its own chaplain, businesses and hospitals have their own chaplains, but the street life and roofless community don’t have anyone.  

Sometimes people were grieving because one of their friends had died and they had no way to mark their loss. People would confess things to me and I felt like I had the role of a priest but on the street – and yet this wasn’t an official role. So, I went to the Bishop and had a conversation with him and he said he couldn’t offer me a job, but he would support me through theological college so I could be trained like any other priest in the city. So, that’s what I did. And then I spent half the time as a chaplain to the homeless community and half my time as vicar at St Paul’s. 

CCHP no longer operates in the churches like this anymore. Can you explain why? 

When COVID came along the government realised everyone needed to be able to isolate, including the roofless community. Eventually, I think about 140 people were accommodated. That was a bit of a gamechanger because it demonstrated that actually if there was a will there was a way: people could be accommodated. When we realised that our homeless friends could be accommodated in guest houses or hotels then we had to rethink. Obviously this was preferable to them having to sleep on a church floor. What we were doing at CCHP was a sticking plaster, but what we wanted to see was real structural, institutional change. We realised that CCHP either needed to wind up or to reimagine what its role was.

Author: Rachel Osbourne

Winter 2022/23 Update

Working for CCHP, alongside remarkable charity It Takes a City (ITAC), has been an exceptionally rewarding experience. I took on the role of Project Coordinator for CCHP in January this year, supporting over 100 volunteers who gave up their time every day, seven days a week throughout the winter season to cook warming meals for guests at Crossways. From first-year university students reading Law to retired architects in their eighties, the volunteers were a wonderfully diverse group, reflecting all sectors of Cambridge society.

I found getting to know the guests and hearing their engaging, often heart-rending, stories powerful and transformative. Whilst sharing meals with the residents, we learnt about their life stories; their loves and losses; their parents and children; their hopes and disappointments. It was a stark reminder of our capacity for prejudice and stereotyping – it is easy, and wrong, to make assumptions about those who are homeless. The very simple fact is that they are just people who have faced enormous challenge. Enjoying delicious meals with volunteers and guests was a special way to remove some of the societal boundaries we place around ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Guests were very complimentary about the input of the volunteers and staff and the atmosphere established at Crossways. ‘It’s been very comforting. I’ve been welcomed and looked after in a way that’s been heart-warming’, said B, following a particularly delicious meal of steak and chips. Many commented on how much they would miss being at Crossways, which had become home to them. Volunteers, too, were enthusiastic about their time at the shelter: ‘a wonderful experience, more people should try it’ – wrote one lady. It was a joy to observe relationships developing between the volunteers over the weeks. The Crossways community is one of kindness and interest; peeling carrots whilst catching up about the previous week; sweeping the floor whilst sharing cooking tips.

Between November 2022 and April 2023, a total of 49 people accessed a bed at Crossways. This number included regular guests, as well as those offered shelter during periods of extremely cold weather. Of the 38 individuals who were given a regular bed at Crossways, over 50% made a positive move-on to somewhere they could access long term accommodation and the appropriate level of support. ITAC and CCHP have since worked hard to accommodate the other individuals, through partnerships with other charities, and covering the costs of accommodation for individuals who have no recourse to public funding.

As the summer blooms, ITAC and CCHP are preparing for the next winter season. ITAC has done a wonderful job in securing the Crossways building again and CCHP is considering various ways to develop the volunteer scheme. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with such an eclectic group of people, united in their determination to support the vulnerable members of our society and to tackle some of the social inequality in Cambridgeshire.

Author: Rachel Osbourne