Housing Justice News Release 6 October 2006
For immediate release
Rachel’s Digest celebrates 10 years with new name
Homelessness charity Housing Justice has decided to rename Rachel's Digest, its weekly bulletin.
From October 2006 the publication will be
known as Housing Justice Digest.
For the past 10 years Rachel's Digest has kept subscribers up to date with a weekly summary of housing, homelessness, regeneration and social policy news and developments reported in newspapers and the specialist housing, regeneration, social care and charity press.
Housing Justice's Chief Executive Alison Gelder commented "Rachel's Digest was established in 1996 by CHAS' then Policy and Information Officer Rachel Lampard to summarise stories from the previous week's general and specialist press. The title was a play on Reader's Digest and reflected its aim of providing a concise summary of developments in the housing and related worlds."
"Since 1996 the publication has developed into a respected summary of all housing, homelessness, regeneration and related stories. It's strength is the breadth of its coverage combing private and public sector stories. A typical Digest might carry items on the latest housing policy initiatives, homelessness, house price inflation, consumer debt as well as items on more light hearted topics such as one recently on footballers' taste in mansions. If it's reported in the press we will cover it in Housing Justice Digest."
"We thought long and hard before deciding to rename the Digest but feel that it is the right thing to do as it celebrates its 10th birthday. Although Rachel left CHAS in 2000 we still get people asking which one of us is Rachel and they are sometimes surprised to find out that the Digest is compiled by Luke Evans, our current Policy and Information Officer!"
The renaming of the Digest is part of a wider rebranding within Housing
Justice which has seen Regenerate, the housing advice centres and
UNLEASH rebranded to incorporate Housing Justice into their titles.
Ends
Notes
The first edition of Housing Justice Digest is available at
www.housingjustice.org.uk/housingjusticedigest
- amongst other stories it has items on the latest HomeBuy shared equity scheme, rises in Scottish homelessness, discussions on housing at the Labour
Party Conference, the latest house price rises, warnings over the length of mortgages and levels of debt and details of the best place to live.
Housing Justice Digest has subscribers from a wide range of housing and homelessness organisations, housing associations, research bodies, social welfare organisations and local authorities across the country.
Housing Justice Digest is compiled weekly by Housing Justice's Policy and Information Officer Luke Evans and is available by email for an annual subscription of £40. Subscriptions are also available for multiple users and for intranet distribution. Housing Justice Digest is available free to Housing Justice members.
For information on subscribing or membership of Housing Justice contact Ellen Byrne, tel 020 7723 7273, email digest@housingjustice.org.uk
Rachel Lampard left Housing Justice's predecessor CHAS in 2000, she is now Secretary for Parliamentary and Political Affairs at the Methodist Church
About Housing Justice
Housing Justice is the national voice of Christian action to prevent homelessness and bad housing.
Housing Justice was formed in April 2003 by the merger of two long-standing housing charities, the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS) and the Churches National Housing Coalition (CNHC). In January 2006 Housing Justice merged with UNLEASH (Church Action on Homelessness in London).
Housing Justice brings together more than 60 years experience of working for change in the field of housing.
Housing Justice provides frontline services to people in housing need and campaigns to improve housing policy.
In total Housing Justice is actively involved in more than 35 communities across England and Wales.
The Housing Justice CHAS network of 12 housing advice centres –in Bradford, Bristol, Croydon, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Kingston upon Thames, Leeds, Central London, Middlesbrough, Oswestry and York- provide practical support to people with housing and related problems.
Housing Justice UNLEASH works to support church-based housing and homelessness projects in London. It is responsible for coordinating the Soup Run Forum.
Housing Justice Regenerate, funded by the government's Civil Renewal Unit, supports resident-led regeneration in 15 guide neighbourhoods across the UK. Regenerate brings together residents who have transformed their estates with those who want to embark on the regeneration process to share learning and offer support.
Housing Justice works with, and for, homeless and badly housed people of all denominations, and with those who have no religious beliefs. All our services are offered to the whole community and, wherever possible, we work in partnership with others who share our values, regardless of religious beliefs.
Further information on Housing Justice and Homelessness Sunday is available at www.housingjustice.org.uk
Contact
Luke Evans 020 7723 7273
Email media@housingjustice.org.uk