Tuesday: Housing and homelessness
Key Facts To Guide Your Prayers:
- According to the 2021 Census, 1 in 3 homes in Oxford experience at least one dimension of deprivation.
- The number of households estimated to have been homeless in the first quarter of 2023 almost doubled compared to the same period in 2022.
- Oxford remains one of the UK’s least affordable cities for housing with the average house costing over 15 times the average salary.
- Housing prices in the city have risen by almost 7% in the last year compared to the UK average of 0.2% over the same course of time
- In Oxfordshire, the services find it hard to engage with up to 40% of the people sleeping rough.
- In addition to the work of Edge Housing to tackle homelessness, the Oxfordshire Homelessness Alliance which is a partnership between 6 local housing charities, local councils and the Lived Experience Advisory Forum aims to prevent and reduce rough sleeping in Oxfordshire by bringing more integration across the different services
Prayer Points and Scriptures To Inspire Your Prayer Time:
- Thank the Lord for organisations and initiatives in the city that have been established to address the housing and homelessness crisis (Psalms 9:9)
- Pray for the Lord to provide miraculously for families struggling to afford rent and meet their daily needs (Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 9:8)
- Pray for the Lord’s justice for the homeless, pray for their protection, well-being, mental health and for policies that better defend and protect them (Isaiah 25:4)
- Pray for landlords in our city who showcase Christlike compassion to their tenants (Matthew 9:36)
- Pray for spiritual protection for the homeless, pray the Lord will be their shelter and a strong tower in which they find refuge from the enemy (Psalms 61:3)
- Pray that we as a church would be more stirred up to help those around us who are less fortunate (James 2:15-17, Proverbs 29:7)
- Pray for the Holy Spirit to show you an opportunity to reach out in a tangible way to express love to the homeless here in Oxford (James 1:27)