A Church’s Ongoing Quest to Build Community Housing  

Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church in the city of Trotwood in suburban Dayton neighborhood is nestled on a 61-acre property with 28-acres of farmland, natural springs and a grove of Black walnut trees. For 25 years Dr. Benjamin E. K. Speare-Hardy II has been the Reverend with the mission to build a new community that included senior housing.   

At his previous church, Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Columbus, Georgia, Father Speare–Hardy built a 48-unit senior housing community on five acres of land that the church had owned. At the time it took six years and upon completion, the bishop asked if Speare-Hardy could build another community in Dayton and he said yes. Little did Speare-Hardy realize how much more time, patience and faith it would require.  

Plan for Affordable Senior Housing 

Speare-Hardy immediately began working to buy several acres of land in Trotwood and collaborated with developers to design a church-based community in 2001. The seven-phase plan included a preschool, soccer field, senior housing and even retention ponds by the natural springs. Things were moving along smoothly; he even got all the required zoning approvals, a feat that many churches struggle to acquire. 

Speare-Hardy saw the desperate need for affordable housing.” The senior population is growing, and baby boomers need a place to retire, a place to live. And so, there is a great need.” 

St. Mary Development Corporation is a non-profit organization that focuses on real estate development in affordable housing and supportive services for seniors. According to the president, Wes Young, 60-percent of St. Mary’s residents in the Dayton area only have Social Security, which is about $15,000 a year and every day in the U.S. 10,000 people turn 65.

 “You could blindfold me, give me a set of darts, a dart board, and I could throw darts. And you could find a need where there’s where you need affordable housing. It’s everywhere. Every single part of Ohio needs affordable housing,” says Young.   

Unforeseen Setbacks  

But as Father Speare-Hardy geared up for his mission, a series of unforeseen national and regional crises took place, setting the project back repeatedly.    

“I was at Sinclair Community College negotiating for us to have a program, a banquet, a fundraiser and I was looking at a monitor, and there were the planes going in a building in New York and the World Trade Center. And everything just went crazy from there,” recalls Father Spear-Hardy.   

After a few years they completed the new church and started on phase one, but the 2008 housing crisis put things on hold. Then a natural disaster hit the area hard. A powerful EF4 tornado in 2019 devastated many areas of Trotwood.   

Since the church only lost one tree, many in need were able to come to Saint Margaret’s for water, food and supplies.  “So, the church became the epicenter during the tornado for resources,” said Speare-Hardy.  Saint Margaret’s also partnered with other churches to take food to those who couldn’t leave their homes because of the damage. 

While still in the middle of helping the community recover from the tornado, the global pandemic hit straining health care systems and shutting down many economic supply chains.  Saint Margaret’s Church pivoted to help, “So we begin to advocate for testing and for vaccine. The church again, became a clinic,” said Spear-Hardy.   

A Patience Test   

As the years rolled on, many in the congregation who supported the project passed away.   The congregation that numbered over 300 when he started, had dwindled to one-third the size. The heavy toll of all the challenges began to test Father Spear-Hardy’s faith even more.   

He says, “One of the things I had to learn was to be patient, because I got very frustrated and I even fussed at God, and asked what in the world you got me doing here? I mean, you brought me here. I’m going through all this stuff, especially when I start losing members. I had to take two weeks off. I mean, can you imagine burying over 200 people in a congregation and I knew all of them.” 

St. Mary Development Corporation  

After the pandemic and continued disinvestment in the area, St. Margaret’s Church began working with St. Mary Development Corporation to revise their housing plan down to two 100-unit homes near the church.  

“Father Bens’ parishioners are like a lot of churches these days where they have an older population so there is a readymade population that would love to live there, real near their church, real near their community, real near their friends. And you know that’s why we became interested in it,” said Wes Young.   

While St. Margaret’s assets include land, zoning, built in utilities, a bus stop nearby, they still were not able to score high enough for the highly competitive government tax credits so that affordable housing developers would take on the project.   

“But right at the moment, it’s not, you know, the rules for the various funding sources are not lining up to, for us to allow us to do that,” explained Wes Young.     

While the housing plans are on hold again, the various roadblocks, such as the tornado and the pandemic, propelled Saint Margaret’s to shift gears to serve other community needs.   

“You know, we may have all the plans but being with those families during their times of need is so important. And so, once I surrendered all to God and say, Lord you’re in charge I’ll just follow you,” yielded Father Spear-Hardy.  

“We have been blessed because we have the land to do it. And why not make use of the land to affect the lives of those who are in need,” insists Father Spear-Hardy. 

And with these goals Father Speare-Hardy remains faithful, “And I hope that this, with some, has sparked the interest of someone out there, who say, who may have an interest in where in our vision for our community and will be willing to come and partner with us to make this happen.” 

Thank you for reading this story. What do you think of faith based developments? Would you like to see more faith based institutions with unused property help out more with affordable housing?

Emiko Moore – Multi-Media Journalist

Emiko Moore is a graduate of Ohio State University has been a freelance producer for NBC News for the last 20 years, covering stories in southwest Ohio and in the tri-state area. She also hosted The Lebanon City Show and was a print journalist for the Western Star, focusing on Warren County. Prior to moving back to her hometown of Lebanon, OH, she worked in NYC for NBC TODAY and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. As a volunteer with Building Bridges Community Conversations, Ishinomaki Playground Project, and Miller Ecological Park, she believes it takes continuous work to strengthen communities. She is excited about journalism that explores the issues while highlighting solutions to bring about positive change.