Keeping the faith

As long as Llewellyn Graham is in charge there is little danger of Nehemiah UCHA losing touch with its roots.

One of the friendliest figures in social housing, Mr Graham has run Nehemiah since it was founded in 1989 (the organisation, based in Great Barr, Birmingham, merged with UCHA in 2007 - UCHA used to stand for ‘United Churches Housing Association’). Perhaps as importantly, Mr Graham maintains the strongest link imaginable with the Church of the God of Prophecy, which was instrumental in Nehemiah’s formation. Back then Mr Llewellyn was a member of the Pentecostal church’s congregation. Today, as well as being chief executive, he is also a bishop with the church. While the organisation has grown from owning one property to more than 1,000 homes, its values are still recognisable from those early days.

‘It is part of the ministry for me,’ Mr Llewellyn says of his job. ‘It is a commitment to the organisation and the philosophy of living action. We are what I would call a legitimate, community-based organisation – taking an active part in community life in terms of education, economic well-being, the whole gamut of community intervention. We have always believed in that.’

Nehemiah’s roots lie in the reaction of church leaders to the poor standards of housing available to older Afro-Caribbean people living in and around Birmingham. The church leaders decided to act after recognising that many of their congregation and their families had originally come to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and were in need of help in their retirement.

“We know what we are in business for. We have never lost touch with our community.”

‘Living conditions were very poor in those days,’ Mr Graham states. ‘People were living in some horrible housing at the time. It contributed to a deterioration in their health.’

The late 1980s saw a number of fledgling black and minority ethnic (BME) housing associations launch. Following high-profile unrest across the UK, including disturbances in the Handsworth and Lozells areas of Birmingham in 1985, the Commission for Racial Equality published a report on race and housing. Mr Graham says this was then influential in the Housing Corporation (a forerunner to the Homes and Communities Agency) launching a strategy for registering new community and BME associations.

Today Mr Graham is an influential figure on the board of umbrella organisation BME National. But he admits that a number of similar providers from those early days have changed dramatically or disappeared.

‘I think most of the organisations who will still have a connection to those kind of faith roots will tend to be the small ones,’ he states. ‘As the larger ones have evolved over time they have all become something else and are driven really more by numbers than by values and ethos.’

So what about Nehemiah UCHA? ‘We know who we are,’ Mr Graham says. ‘We know what we are in business for. We have never lost touch with our community.’ Current work includes the launch of an academy in 2013 to help support customers from poor backgrounds who aspire to enter higher education, with work placements and financial aid.

The association does, of course, now house people from all faiths and backgrounds. Is that tricky given its origins and continuing mission?

‘People have said “how can you talk about Christian ethos in a multi-faith environment?”,’ Mr Graham adds. ‘It comes out of love. It is a regardless love. We care because people deserve to be cared for and supported.’