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Why our tenants are moving to Canvey Island

BBC film crews followed members of Europe’s largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish community as they moved out of London. Suzanne Wolfe explains more

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The Noe family (picture: BBC)
The Noe family (picture: BBC)
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Why members of Europe’s largest ultra-orthdox Jewish community are moving out of London #ukhousing

Canvey Island: the promised Island #ukhousing

On Tuesday night, our tenants Naftali and Miriam Noe and their four children appeared in a BBC documentary about their move from Stamford Hill in Hackney, London, to Canvey Island in Essex.

Called Canvey: The Promised Island, the film has received a lot of interest, as it follows the most recent Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) family to leave northeast London, where their community has been settled since the 1800s, to live in an area of Essex touted as one of the most pro-Brexit wards in Britain.

It may seem like an odd move, but from IDS (Industrial Dwellings Society)’s point of view, as a 1,500-home BME housing association, with more than 130 years working with members of the Jewish community, it is a life-changing one for the four families we’ve housed there.


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Before moving to Canvey Island, the Noe family, like many other Haredi families, were living under extreme housing pressure, in a substandard private rented home with the ceilings literally falling in.

There simply weren’t any affordable homes available to them in Stamford Hill, so they had to look for alternatives.

“There simply weren’t any affordable homes available to them in Stamford Hill.”

IDS was set up as a direct action response to the acute and appalling housing conditions in London’s East End.

We remain committed to providing culturally appropriate housing for Jewish people living in socio-economic deprivation, and our work with the Noe family – enabling them to leave awful housing conditions and live in a place where they can thrive – feels like our organisation returning to its roots.

Built on the site of a former school, the ‘satellite’ Haredi community that has been established on Canvey Island includes everything families like the Noes need to be able to observe their faith: a synagogue, kosher shops, boys’ and girls’ schools, and a centre for adult study.

A trailer for the documentary:

More than 20 families had already relocated there by the time my team and I first visited last summer.

The families that had settled had, however, bought their properties; there was a need for more homes to rent – in particular homes suitable for larger families and within walking distance of the new community infrastructure, especially the synagogue.

We decided to purchase two new three-bedroom homes and two four-bedroom properties for intermediate rent.

Our homes were made available to members of the community who were looking to move to Canvey Island.

“We are currently evaluating our portfolio to identify how we can best help more families from the Jewish community and others move to more suitable homes.”

We selected applicants referred to us by the Stamford Hill community, assessing their level of housing need.

At IDS, we’re currently evaluating our portfolio to identify how we can best help more families from the Jewish community and others move to more suitable homes.

We plan to build an extra 500 properties over the next 10 years and we’re evaluating levels of need and demand in various areas such as Hackney, Barnet, Hertsmere and Redbridge.

We’ve also been working on a study with the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, assessing the level of social and economic deprivation within the Jewish community.

“We plan to build an extra 500 properties over the next 10 years.”

We’ve identified that, within the Jewish ‘mainstream’, the main causes of poverty are ageing and long-term illness. Among ultra-Orthodox Jews, though, socio-economic circumstances lead to deprivation.

We will be considering how we can help more families in ways that are sensitive to their cultural needs.

When I visited the four families we’ve housed on Canvey Island after they moved in last October, one of the mothers told me: “Our children can breathe here. They can grow now.”

We want this for all of the families we house.

Suzanne Wolfe, chief executive, IDS

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