Community organising in Birmingham

The Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign

In Birmingham, our community organiser supports the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign (BFHC). The campaign brings together people and organisations from across Birmingham. Its aim is to make sure everyone in Birmingham has an affordable, safe, and secure home as a human right.

The Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign has six demands:

1. we want social housing

2. we want rights for people in emergency and temporary accommodation

3. we want rights for renters

4. we want an end to discrimination

5. we want housing with compassion

6. we want an end to homelessness

United, our voices are powerful. Together we can make housing in Birmingham
fair for everyone. But it’s going to take all of us, together, to make it
happen.

My rent is expensive. Some weeks I go without food.
- Ruth, Northfield

I'm in temporary housing. My house is damp and rat infested. I feel we're living like animals.
- Suraiya, Aston

Story of the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign

In 2020, Shelter Birmingham launched a listening campaign called Home Truths. We listened to the housing problems people in Birmingham were experiencing. We heard their views on what was needed to fix them.

Hundreds of people from across Birmingham shared their stories of the housing emergency. Through those stories people were able to identify the common housing problems they faced, and decide together what action is needed to fix them.

Fight for home across Birmingham

In February 2021, the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign was born. It brought together people who had taken part in the Home Truths campaign. It also attracted support from other people and organisations across Birmingham.

Over four months, BFHC members interrogated the findings from the listening campaign. They heard from housing policy experts and drew on their own lived experiences. From this, they created the People's Manifesto for Fair Housing in Birmingham.

Other ways to get involved

Follow the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign on Twitter.

Contact us

Email us about the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign.

Got a question about Shelter's other community organising work? Email our campaigns team.