Housing may be coming to a church near you
Religious organizations are some of the biggest landholders in the country and communities are increasingly looking to them to help solve the housing crisis. Some efforts are already underway but churches say they need zoning help to build on their property. Faith-based development can take many forms. Is it making a difference?
How many churches are building and how many could be?
The potential
The Center for Geospatial Solution’s (CGS) Jeff Allenby, who Brick by Brick interviewed for Episode 26, says initial estimates show there are about 750,000 parcels (not acres) of religious-owned land across the country. “And a lot of it is in markets that do have a substantial need for housing,” he says.
CGS, commissioned by the Lynch Foundation to study church property in Massachusetts, determined of about 7,000 properties that 1,973 had over 203 million square feet of total developable space. With seven homes per acre, “that’s enough land to build over 140,000 units of housing in Massachusetts alone,” according to Allenby.
CGS is now looking at possible church housing with faith-based organizations in other states including Indiana, Arizona, Minnesota and Virginia.
The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley determined in a 2023 study that in California alone, the total developable land owned by faith-based organizations (FBO) amounted to 47,019 acres.
With 10 housing units per acre, that’s enough for 400,000 housing units, says Robert Steuteville with the Congress of New Urbanism.
However, Terner researchers noted, “There remain significant barriers to scaling the development of affordable housing on these sites. Development of affordable housing on FBO-owned land can be a risky and complicated undertaking, even if approvals are streamlined and zoning restrictions relaxed.”
What’s being done
Rutgers University researcher Nadia Mian, senior program director of the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement, is creating a database of faith-based developments in the U.S.
“I’m looking at congregation-led affordable housing where congregations are taking the lead to use some of their underutilized or excess land to build affordable housing on their property,” she says.
So far, she’s identified about 100 projects over the last decade.
According to Mian, “They have a lot of excess land, but they also have aging congregations, declining congregations, underutilized property buildings that are in need of repair and all of this costs money.”
She points out there are many ways faith-based development can be done.
For a parking lot, “they could be using that property, subdividing it and then building on the subdivided lot.”
Mian is looking exclusively at development on church-owned property but there are churches acting as community developers by building on property they buy. Additionally, developers are buying old churches and church property to build on.
National and international examples:
- Arlington Presbyterian Church in Virginia tore down its main church and sold the land at below market value to a nonprofit who built 173 units of affordable housing. The church now rents worship space on the ground floor of the apartment building.
- Ebenezer Urban Ministry Center in Brooklyn bought two city blocks and turned them into more than 500 affordable apartments.
- Inglewood California First United Methodist Church has plans for 60 studio apartments, replacing empty school buildings on its campus.
- Washington Heights United Methodist Church and Community in Battle Creek, Michigan, is buying up land and building and renovating housing units. This housing is in the community and not on its church property.
- An open house is planned for May 20, 2025, for the first of 17 homes the church is building.
- A four-unit apartment building it owns houses people who were formerly homeless.
- Single mothers live in houses it bought and renovated.
- The church is also offering to help seniors retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient. (like we talked about in Episode 11)
- First Baptist Church in Vancouver, Canada sold its air rights and one of its parcels to a developer who built a 57-story apartment tower right behind the church. With the proceeds they built a brand-new sanctuary with a daycare, a seven-story affordable apartment building, community space and a gym that can also house people during the cold winter months.
Local examples:
Faith-based development is slow to catch on in Ohio but that doesn’t mean there’s not an interest. Brick by Brick’s Emiko Moore reports in the podcast on a Dayton effort that began decades ago.
Here’s another church that’s running into roadblocks-People’s Church in Cincinnati’s Corryville neighborhood. A planned $60 million development has been put on hold because of the uncertainty of various government funding sources. The project calls for a new sanctuary, retail and a four-story market-rate apartment building. The church tells Brick by Brick it is hopeful it can move forward later this year.
Plans are moving forward with the redevelopment of the historic Grace Church property. In conjunction with the Avondale Development Corporation, The Cincinnati Business Courier reports 8K will turn the church and its annex into commercial space and up to 20 affordable residential apartment units along Glenwood Ave.
There may be other developments down the road. Brick by Brick looked at an online marketplace for commercial real estate called Loopnet and found at least six churches for sale in Cincinnati and four in Dayton.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is consolidating 208 parishes into 57 under its “Beacons of Light” initiative. It’s unclear if it will be selling off any property to be turned into housing. Brick by Brick will continue to follow the effort.
There are Catholic Churches and Schools in the Diocese of Covington, KY that have been sold and converted into housing.
- Corpus Christi School (Newport) is housing through Neighborhood Foundations.
- St. Vincent de Paul School (Newport) is now Manor’s on Main.
- St. Anthony School (Bellevue) is now The Washington.
- St. Anthony Church (Bellevue) is now private condos, as Cincinnati Magazine reported.
- Our Lady of Providence Academy (Newport), once owned and operated by the Sisters of Divine Providence, is now The Hannaford.
Benefits
Houses of worship are increasingly looking for streams of revenue as memberships decline and costs go up. Apartments built on church property could provide that.
Even something as simple as renting out the sanctuary, kitchen or sound equipment could make money for the church. One resource is the app ChurchSpace. It bills itself as the Airbnb for churches.
Former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge recently called out churches during a Harvard webinar, as well as universities and hospitals to use their land to help people.
In doing so, faith-based organizations could feel they are working to solve a social problem, like lack of housing.
Limitations
Zoning is the biggest roadblock for religious institutions building housing on their property. The term YIGBY or Yes in God’s Backyard, was coined in 2019 by San Diego housing activists who petitioned for zoning changes so they could build housing in their church parking lot. Since then, California and the State of Washington have passed YIGBY laws.
Shelterforce.com reports in California nonprofit colleges and religious institutions now have “the power to build 100-percent affordable housing projects on their properties “by right,” bypassing any special zoning requirements the city might have, as long as the project meets state-mandated criteria.”
Other states considering YIGBY laws include New York, Virginia and Hawaii. Cities adopting the fast-track laws include Atlanta and San Antonio.
It would provide technical assistance to churches and local governments and financial incentives to communities who remove barriers.
Other limiting factors include NIMBYism-not in my backyard and money.
Looking ahead
Uncertainly with government funding has some faith-based organizations pausing their plans to build housing, like People’s Church in Corryville.
Other churches may decide to proceed but with smaller developments.
The author of this Strong Towns article, Eli Smith, says churches should stick with small incremental developments because big ones take too long and end up costing way too much.
Case in point, “an eight-story, 144-unit project in Northern Virginia took over a decade and $84 million to complete. That works out to almost $600,000 per unit. If not for intense subsidies, this simple would not be ‘affordable housing.’”
Smith says, “Compare that to Caldwell Presbyterian in Charlotte, North Carolina, which converted an unused building to 21 units for less than half the per-unit cost. Another upcoming project at Greater Refuge Church in Durham, North Carolina, promises to build six units for $150,000 each. On the extreme low end, Sacred Settlement in St Paul, Minnesota, is building tiny homes on church properties for about $35,000.”
Some houses of worship are partnering with senior housing communities. McKnight’s Senior Living reports, “A partnership between a senior living developer and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix will result in five senior living communities opening on church grounds.”
What do you think about increasing the housing supply through faith-based development? There are hurdles, including zoning and funding. We want to build community around context and solutions in our cities. Your feedback is very important to the effort, as we continue to dig deeper into the responses to social issues, including the housing crisis. Click on the green button to take a short survey to help reinforce and refine our work. Thank you.
Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
