27th June 2023: Interview with Jon Canessa

Jon, tell us a bit about you! 

I live in the North-East working for the Methodist Church with Deacon Tracey Hume on Recovery Church.  Recovery Church Inclusive Communities create places of belonging with people who are recovering from a variety of addictions, including drugs and alcohol.  Prior to returning back north, I lived in Cambridge working as Chaplain with the Street Life & Homeless Community and chaired the Cambridge Churches Homeless Project until 2021.

And how were you involved in CCHP’s establishment? 

I remember convening a meeting back in 2010 with the local authorities and with several individuals involved in homelessness; there were many who wanted to do something about the growing numbers of homeless people that we could see on the streets.  The impetus for this was driven by some very motivated and passionate individuals from several churches including Lucy McKittrick and Amanda Goodman (Little St Mary’s), Stephen Barwise (OLEM), as well as Chris Jenkin and Barry Woodman from Hope Cambridge.

Initially seven churches took it in turns to provide accommodation and a hot meal for two months, for ten people. Over the years the numbers of guests and duration we ran during the winter doubled.  We learned a lot from working closely with the homeless sector, eventually forming a multi-agency group that helped CCHP to identify and support those individuals that were sleeping rough and needed accommodation.  During a winter we would get to know people very well while they were in our care and we worked with partners to ensure they accessed accommodation, rather than simply end up back on the street again.  We weren’t always successful, but many people accessed accommodation and employment each year as a result of the work of CCHP.

CCHP began simply as a group of volunteers and with each passing winter it became clear that it needed to become an organisation in its own right, rather that exist under the umbrella of Hope Cambridge.  In 2018 CCHP became a registered charity so it could publish its own accounts (for donations and transparency) and have clear lines of accountability and governance.

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

Initially, I don’t think our churches knew how to respond to homelessness in a co-ordinated or strategic way; the local authority were discouraging of churches becoming involved.  I think the default setting for some churches when a homeless person appeared, was to think, ‘How do we get rid of them?’  However, most churches had within them people who wanted to do something and CCHP provided a safe and practical way for this to happen.  I think the culture across ALL of the churches in the city shifted to one of ‘informed hospitality’. 

CCHP found a way for churches to be able to connect with people experiencing homelessness with many enjoying the various volunteer roles that . 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.  

Spending time with our guests meant that we were blessed by their presence; mostly guests were respectful and a joy to spend time with.  Of course there were challenges, usually alcohol-fuelled, when experienced volunteers and later, paid staff from partner organisations enables us to respond and manage the risks we carried appropriately.

My own experience of our guests has been that they have challenged assumptions and prejudices and have taught me to be more compassionate and less judgemental.

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

I had become disillusioned with church. I couldn’t connect the radical Jesus I read about in the Gospels with the activities on a Sunday morning so I stopped going. Instead I made flasks of tea and coffee and used to walk around the city on a Sunday morning just making sure people were OK.  Back then, there were ‘hot spots’, such as behind Parkside swimming pool, where people used to bed down for the night, or sleep in the hollows inside skate park ramps.  

I came to recognise the need for a Chaplain position to work with people experiencing homelessness the city. I would listen to individuals who 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.

I met with the then Bishop of Ely (Stephen Conway) who supported me through the process of becoming an ordained Anglican priest so I could work with people experiencing homelessness.  I will always be grateful for the support Bishop Stephen showed me throughout my ministry in Cambridge and I am thrilled to learn that Rev’d Kristian Hewett is now working full time in this role.

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

When COVID came along the government realised everyone needed to isolate, including people without somewhere to live.  Eventually, I think about 140 people were accommodated by Cambridge City Council. That was a gamechanger because it demonstrated if there is a will, there was a way: people were accommodated.  When we realised that our homeless friends could be accommodated in guest houses or hotels we had to rethink. Obviously, this development is preferable to sleeping on a church floor. In some ways CCHP was set up as a temporary response to the crisis of growing numbers of homeless people.  What we need is structural and institutional change. Since Covid, CCHP has rightly reimagined its role and it continues to show love in a practical way to our neighbour.

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