Some churches are turning their empty lots into affordable housing

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — The grassy plot of land across the street from Trinity East United Methodist Church sat empty most of the time.

The land had been occasionally used for outdoor events, food pantries and other gatherings for decades. When the Rev. Marilyn White was appointed pastor more than 11 years ago, the Houston church had already talked about turning the property into housing — though the idea had never gotten off the ground.

White saw changes in the area around Trinity East over the last 10 years. Housing costs rose, and longtime residents increasingly were pushed out.

“I went out and started attending meetings of nonprofits and community meetings and just listening,” White said. “The number one need everywhere I went: We need affordable housing, and we need it quickly.”

The United States faces its most unaffordable housing market in at least a generation, partially driven by a shortage of homes. Some religious leaders are looking to their own backyards, unused parking lots, empty fields and aging buildings as potential spaces for affordable new homes that they can rent out or sell.

For White, Trinity East’s empty lot seems like an opportunity to make a difference in the community. The Houston church reflects a movement dubbed by some as “YIGBY” ­– Yes In God’s Back Yard – an offshoot of the broader pro-housing YIMBY movement.

Some religious institutions see this work as a charitable or nonprofit endeavor. For others, it’s a matter of survival.

The bottom line is that fewer people go to church or other houses of worship than they used to, according to Mark Elsdon, a Presbyterian minister and a developer who works with houses of worship. Some religious institutions may need new sources of revenue as declining membership reduces their income, he said.

But building housing in the United States, particularly affordable housing, can be a long and expensive process. Religious leaders with little or no experience in real estate development or financing navigate a complicated system, from securing funding and approvals to facing opposition from neighbors and, in some cases, from their own congregants.

“You have to have so many ingredients for that to work. It has to be a site that works, it has to be financially feasible, financing has to be obtained, all the zoning has to be obtained,” Elsdon said.

The challenges of building

There is enough unused religious land to make a dent in the country’s affordable housing problem, Elsdon said. But right now, a minority of church land is successfully getting developed because of the hurdles to building affordable housing, he added.

Pastor Joseph Daniels, who leads Emory United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, found himself in a protracted battle with the National Park Service and the DC Historic Preservation Board early in the process of building an affordable housing project on the DC church’s land. The National Park Service unexpectedly designated the church’s property a historic landmark after a private resident petitioned the agency, Daniels said.

Historic designations can be used by local residents seeking to block or delay new development, adding another layer of opposition to projects that are already difficult and expensive to get off the ground.

Ultimately, the congregation won approval to build. But the fight set the project back millions of dollars and at least two years, Daniels said.

In total, the process took 11 years. The result was 99 units of fully affordable housing, which opened its doors in 2019. Daniels said the church still owes its denomination about $2.5 million of an original $3.5 million loan, which it is paying off as the project works toward profitability.

Today, some church members live in the apartments next door and other tenants have joined the congregation.

“History is extremely important, but when it is used to deny persons the opportunity to help others, particularly on land we own, that was a real challenge,” Daniels said.

Two decades ago, Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit that creates and promotes affordable housing, began advising religious leaders on housing development. Lawmakers at the time were reluctant to help, said David Bowers, the senior adviser of Enterprise’s faith-based development initiative.

But that is beginning to change.

Lawmakers are increasingly embracing the YIGBY movement, and a growing number of states and cities are rewriting land-use rules to make it easier for religious institutions to build housing on their property.

In recent years, nine states have passed or considered YIGBY legislation, according to the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. It’s a sign that the movement is gaining traction well beyond individual churches and their communities.

White didn’t navigate the process alone. She got help from local organizations, from Enterprise – and from Daniels, who now had experience wading through the paperwork and maze of local and state agencies needed to secure funding, grants and tax credits.

An expensive undertaking

Trinity East faced its own roadblocks, White said. State officials in Austin, Texas, were reluctant to grant an affordable housing tax credit for the $30 million project because of the area’s crime rate.

Many of these religious housing projects rely on government grants and tax breaks to get off the ground, said Bart Mitchell, CEO of The Community Builders, a nonprofit developer that partnered with Daniels on his church’s affordable housing project in Washington. With rising mortgage rates and tariffs increasing the cost of building materials, these projects are only growing more expensive, he said.

White’s congregation worked with local police departments to create a plan to help reduce the crime rate in the area. After presenting it to Austin government officials, they approved the project’s tax credits this year.

The complex, which will be 90 units of senior housing for residents 55 and older, broke ground in July and is expected to be up and running next year, White said.

White said the years it took to get the project off the ground made her realize how difficult it is to get affordable housing built.

“But I am more convinced than ever that it can be done, and it should be done,” said White, who recently retired as Trinity East’s pastor but continues to oversee the housing project.

YIGBY’s different forms

When building housing proves too difficult, some religious institutions find other ways to put their underused property to work. One church Elsdon advised converted part of its building into a small-business incubator.

IKAR, a Jewish community in Los Angeles, spent years trying to build an affordable housing complex on the same property as its synagogue. But local parking requirements made the project too expensive, said Melissa Balaban, IKAR’s CEO.

So, the community changed course. This summer, IKAR purchased a motel down the street as a separate housing site.

Sometimes a religious community decides to vacate a property altogether to clear the way for housing. In the Bronx, New York, the Ursuline Sisters convent leased parts of its land to Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, an affordable housing developer.

The end result is a more than 500-unit affordable housing complex that has livened up the surrounding area, said Heng Ly, the CEO of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation.

Elsdon said that while building housing is vital, losing churches and other houses of worship may create larger holes in communities.

“It has a ripple effect because people go to churches to pick up food from a food pantry, or to the Girl Scout troop meets, or neighborhood association meets. In my community, we vote in churches,” he said.

White hopes the new senior community will carry Trinity East’s spirit across the street. The church plans to co-run the development with its real estate partner and provide services to the seniors who live there.

And White plans to mentor other religious leaders on what they, too, could do with the land in their own backyards.

“After our ground-breaking, pastors from other churches started calling me, saying ‘Hey, can we talk to you? Because we want to do the same thing,’” she said.

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