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Parishes Say ‘Yes in God’s Back Yard’

America’s churches have what it takes to put a dent in the nation’s housing crisis. They have land and underutilized space, often located in high-density areas where affordable homes are desperately needed. Now congregations are receiving a groundswell of support to help them assess opportunities and navigate conversion to housing.

New grant programs, nonprofit consultancies, educational events, and church-friendly state laws have been springing up. The goal: to accelerate decision-making in congregations that could use the extra money while meeting a pressing need, but often don’t know where to begin.

“Providing homes for people in your community is a way to be part of a deeper solution, a structural solution [to] real inequity issues in our country” that have made housing unaffordable, said Nina Janopaul, chair of the board of trustees at Virginia Episcopal Real Estate Partners (VEREP, formerly Virginia Diocesan Homes), at a September conference on “The Future of Church Property” at Princeton Theological Seminary.

It’s also a way to stabilize church finances. A ground lease to a developer, for instance, can sometimes put millions into a church’s coffers either as a lump sum or as income over years. It’s common for nonprofit developers to fund predevelopment costs and provide financing guarantees, according to Janopaul, but churches need to learn what to ask for.

“The church shouldn’t be put in the position of betting the bank on something you don’t control” when there’s a partnership involved, said Janopaul, who previously worked as president and CEO of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, a nonprofit developer. At VEREP, her organization helps congregations leverage properties for greater community benefit and financial stability.

This new wave of support for congregations comes at an opportune time. As many as 100,000 church-owned buildings are expected to be sold or repurposed by 2030, according to an analysis in Gone for Good?: Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition by Mark Elsdon.

Developing housing can be rewarding, both as social justice and as a financial game-changer for a cash-strapped church. Some who’ve done it have gone from deficits to balanced budgets, reduced expenses, and put new money in the bank.

But it’s no easy road. It typically takes seven to 10 years, experts say, and can be fraught with costs, surprises, and complexities.

What’s more, neighborhood opposition is virtually guaranteed. In Virginia, at least 30 congregations have sought permission for affordable housing projects in recent years, according to Shiela Herlihy Hennessee, faith organizing director for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, an advocacy group. All 30 have faced vocal neighborhood resistance.

“One nonprofit housing developer said she walked out of one meeting because the public comment was so vitriolic,” Hennessee told TLC. “She said the pushback from the neighbors was just horrendous.”

But opportunity is enormous, housing proponents say, and worth fighting for. In New York City, for example, faith-based organizations own 92 million square feet of land, or 2.5 times the size of Central Park. The vast majority (86 million square feet) is zoned residentially and could accommodate as many as 98,000 new homes in multifamily buildings, according to an April 2024 analysis by the Furman Center at New York University.

With so much potential, congregations are being urged to explore what’s doable. Along the way, they’re hearing from congregations that took the leap and ushered in a brighter future for their churches and their neighborhoods.

Consider the Church of the Resurrection in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2012, the aging congregation faced mounting deficits and shrinking staff salaries in a losing effort to maintain its 12,000-square-foot facility. Staring down a $95,000 deficit, Church of the Resurrection embarked on a new approach. The congregation partnered with a developer on a project to take down the old church and replace it with affordable housing and a new, smaller church.

Today, 113 housing units are in use, and Church of the Resurrection has a 5,000-square-foot church that’s more flexible in its design. The new church was funded with proceeds from a 65-year ground lease, for which the developer paid $4.3 million. Now the congregation has minimal maintenance costs, multi-use spaces with movable furniture (no pews), capital reserves, and a new community to serve in its back yard.

Kat Turner, a member who’s served on Church of the Resurrection’s vestry and its building team, says the benefits can be measured by what’s lost as well as what’s gained.

“You’ve given up a building with substantial deferred maintenance,” Turner said. “You don’t have to worry anymore about the HVAC system or leaky roofs or other things that can sometimes consume a church vestry so that they don’t get to the spiritual and the mission part because they’re worried about keeping the building together.”

For Church of the Resurrection, the transition has meant accepting tradeoffs. The church’s beloved food pantry and its nationally known childcare center had to be relocated. Church of the Resurrection parishioners are still involved with the pantry, but they now volunteer at its new site, Turner said.

“All of our ministries have found homes, but they’re not in our building,” Turner said. The congregation has embraced new ministries that suit its downsized facility and its aging congregation, including diaper collections, hygiene bag prep, and a “little free library.”

Because every church’s facilities and land are unique, each case requires analysis of the particulars. Still, the task of assessing what could work is becoming less daunting and more affordable. That’s because new initiatives are making technical expertise and funding accessible to congregations that are ready to test proposals.

Consider what’s happening in Virginia:

  • Three conferences convened at sites around the state in 2024 to help churches learn their rights and find resources for undertaking affordable housing projects on church-owned land;
  • Virginia Housing, a state agency, is awarding grants that can help congregations cover analysis costs, such as appraisal fees and engineering reports;
  • State lawmakers are considering legislation that would help congregations proceed on projects by eliminating some public-hearing requirements.

If the proposed legislation passes, Virginia “communities could just say, ‘Look, yeah, we still need a site plan, but you don’t need to go through the rezoning process,’” Hennessee said. “‘You don’t have to come talk to our planning commission.’ It saves you the NIMBY [not in my back yard] arguments of the neighbors saying, ‘Oh, we don’t want those people living next door.’”

Cain Commons is a new affordable housing complex at St. Anne’s, left, in Damascus, Maryland. |  Columbia Property Management Group

Other states are mobilizing as well. Since 2022, California, Washington, and Maryland have passed “Yes in God’s Back Yard” laws. These are aimed at empowering congregations to build on their properties and not be deterred by local restrictions or neighborhood opposition campaigns aimed at driving up church costs and shutting down affordable housing plans.

Within the Episcopal Church, housing-focused partnerships are gaining momentum. Congregations that have partnered to put up affordable housing in recent years include Christ Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and St. Anne’s in Damascus, Maryland.

This year, 12 organizations received grants for mission real estate development from Trinity Church Wall Street. One TWS grantee is Bricks and Mortals, a New York-based nonprofit consultancy. Bricks and Mortals works with New York City congregations to make their real estate more productive for the benefit of their neighborhoods.

Affordable housing doesn’t have to mean involvement in complex projects. It can be as simple as selling off a section of an underutilized parking lot. Janopaul says congregations should take heart that they have many options, including some that are relatively easy to execute.

“Sometimes [the opportunity] is just sitting there in plain view but no one knows it,” Janopaul said, “because no one asked the question” about what’s possible.

G. Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning religion reporter, United Church of Christ pastor, church consultant and author of Part-Time is Plenty: Thriving without Full-Time Clergy (WJK Press, 2020). His website is gjeffreymacdonald.com.

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