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A BME housing association is mourning the deaths of two of its founders, who have passed away within a day of each other.
Bishops Theophilus McCalla and Horatio Fearon, who helped establish Nehemiah Housing Association in 1989, suddenly died last week.
A local media report said both men died after contracting coronavirus, although a spokesperson for Nehemiah told Inside Housing it could not confirm this.
Llewellyn Graham, chief executive of Nehemiah, said the organisation has been “overwhelmed by the tributes that are being paid to both men”.
In 1986, Mr McCalla and Mr Fearon, long with the association’s current chair Wilton Powell, laid the foundations for Nehemiah by setting up a meeting to discuss poor housing conditions faced by older members of the Aberdeen Street Church of God of Prophecy in Winson Green, Birmingham.
Mr McCalla became the first chair of Nehemiah when it was later established, with the aim of providing community-managed sheltered housing, while Mr Fearon was elected treasurer.
Nehemiah Housing Association merged with United Churches Housing Association in 2007 and rebranded as Nehemiah Housing in 2018, with a stock of around 1,250 homes across the West Midlands.
Mr Graham added: “Many have described Bishop McCalla and Bishop Fearon as visionaries, which has been evidenced in them being champions and advocates for elders, families, children and young people in spearheading both church and social action programmes.
“In establishing Nehemiah Housing Association, they were men who shared the common perspective of caring for the seniors of our community.
“I have spoken to Bishop McCalla’s and Bishop Fearon’s [families] and prayed with them, they are both grateful for the many messages of support and love that they have received from the West Midlands community.”
Tom Murtha, former chief executive of Midland Heart and a board member of Nehemiah, said: “We forget how difficult it was then to set up black-led organisations which were ground-breaking at the time.
“These two men were true pioneers who recognised black people were being discriminated against and set out inspired by their faith to do something about it. We owe them a great debt.”
Update: at 15.11pm 06/04/20 a comment from Tom Murtha was added to the story.
Update: at 16.11pm 06/04/20 more information was added to the story following local media reports that Mr McCalla and Mr Fearon died after contracting coronavirus.
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