A coalition of Christian charities - Housing Justice, Scottish Churches Housing Action, Church Action on Poverty and the Church Urban Fund - have come together to hold a series of public poverty hearings as part of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week.
From 26 January to 3 February, Christians across the UK will be looking at the human face of poverty, bad housing and homelessness where they live.
One in five people living in poverty. Government figures show that 12.7 million people - 22 per cent of the total population - live in poverty in the UK including seven million adults, 3.1million of whom are parents, 3.8million are children, and 1.8 million pensioners.
Others figures show that over 526,000 families, including almost one million children live in overcrowded accommodation, and over 80,000 homeless families are having to endure temporary accommodation whilst they wait for rehousing. At the same time more than 1.6 million families are on local authority housing waiting lists.
"Churches rightly pay lots of attention to poverty and hunger in the third world but often fail to appreciate the extent of the problem at home," said Chief Executive of Housing Justice Alison Gelder. "It is a scandal that in this the fifth biggest economy in the world more than one in five people are living in poverty."
Gelder went on, "We hope that the Poverty and Homelessness Action Week events will cause Christians to reflect on the situation here in the UK. For most people in poverty in Britain it is not about literally being homeless or having no money but about not being able to fully participate in society."
"The hearings will provide a voice for the experiences of people at the margins of society such as families having to endure cramped overcrowded accommodation, asylum seekers who are suffering destitution, disabled people having to live in inappropriate housing and families forced into debt in order to afford everyday items."
As well as the poverty hearings churches will be marking the Action Week with special services and events such as sleep outs to raise awareness and raise money for local services.
The Poverty and Homelessness Action Week is the first stage in a bigger year-long national campaign, aiming to raise awareness and gain commitments from all political parties to eradicate poverty in the UK.
Gelder concluded, "The evidence we gain from the hearings will feed into our campaign to get the government and opposition parties to include pledges to end poverty in their next election manifestos. The government is already committed to ending child poverty, we would like to see this extended to ending all poverty."
Events during Poverty and Homelessness Action Week
Banbury - Poverty hearing. Quaker Meeting House. 1 February, 5:30pm
Boston - Poverty hearing for Licolnshire. St Christophers Church. 29 January, 7pm
Bradford - Poverty hearing: Speak out on poverty. Impressions Art Gallery. 1 February, 11am
Chatham - Sponsored sleep out. 26 January, 9pm
Chippenham - Sponsored sleep out. St Andrews Church. 26 January, 7pm
Gloucester - Poverty hearing: being poor in Gloucester. St Johns, Northgate. 1 February, 2:30pm
