Did you know that a congregation can have affordable housing built
on their property with no out-of-pocket cost to the congregation?
Transforming Congregations, Lives and Cities With Affordable Housing on Religious Land
Does your congregation have an underutilized parking lot or land? Is your church in need of extra income?
MHCH’s Congregational Land Committee started in 2019 and today it has become its own nonprofit called Congregational Land Partners (CLP). This team was created to assist religious institutions in exploring the feasibility of using some their property to build affordable housing, often at no cost to the congregation. MHCH is still a strong partner with CLP and is happy to initiate a dialogue with you to discern if building affordable housing on underutilized congregation land is a wise and feasible option. To learn more please visit the CLP website at https://www.conglandpartners.org/.
We can help your congregation connect with an affordable housing developer who will obtain the needed funding and ensure that this project fulfills the vision and mission of your congregation, with a fair rate of return. To request assistance, contact: Philip Burns
Phil@arroyogroup.com 626.795.9771
Often religious land is not properly zoned to allow for affordable housing. Our team played a significant role in both writing the legislation for SB4, a California statewide policy that rezones every religious property and public college if they propose affordable housing. We also helped to shepherd this through California State legislation. But prior to that we went city by city seeking to pass local religious overlay zones. Some cities in California may want to strengthen aspects of SB4, but if you're in another state you may want to view this PowerPoint that we used to help pass local religious overlays.
Before we had SB4, we lobbied to have a local overlay zone in Pasadena; ultimately it applied to only six churches in the City and none were interested in affordable housing. That's what pushed us to work at the state level. Such ordinances or state legislation is essential because typically it could cost upwards to $100K for a church to try to rezone their property. The following pdf offers a brief introduction on how to get your city to adopt similar policies.
Testimonial from a Church That Plans to Build 80+ units of Affordable Housing
The pastor and a trustee of this church wrote of Phil Burns and Andre White, members of the MHCH Congregational Land team: “We are so grateful to have been connected to Phil Burns and Andre White to support our church. Taking a collaborative approach, they helped us reconsider our campus, and looked at how we could build affordable housing and a new spiritual center on our property…. Affordable housing has not been built in our city since 2005. A year and a half later, we are in a position to understand our options going forward. We see a way to meet a deep community need, and a potential way to be sustainable for the next 55+ years....Many churches are facing a precipice. Innovation is necessary. With declines in membership and funding in the last four years, we faced a huge challenge….Not only have we benefited from the deep land use and real estate expertise, we have also enjoyed their willingness to think creatively and strategically. I can’t think of any better examples of innovative leadership.”
About the Congregational Land Committee
To request assistance, contact: Philip Burns
Phil@arroyogroup.com 626.795.9771
Los Angeles County is in a severe affordable housing and homelessness crisis, with over 75,000 homeless persons and over 500,000 affordable housing units needed to meet demand. To help meet this need, California passed SB 4 in 2023, a bill which makes it easier for congregations to have affordable housing built on their underutilized land. We helped initiative this policy and are grateful to Governor Newson, Senator Scott Weiner, and the 300 organizations that supported this bill. Other states are now considering similar bills to help churches address the housing crisis.
Amid this crisis, congregations have a unique opportunity to provide affordable housing. For those experiencing homelessness many congregations offer meals and other outreach ministries, including having a professional housing navigator offer a path to becoming housed. But even professional homeless service organizations lack enough affordable housing once those experiencing homelessness are on this path.
As wise stewards of their resources some congregations are building affordable housing on their property. Other congregations have large parking lots that go empty during the week, buildings constructed for congregations much larger than is needed today, or other property that can be re-purposed. In building affordable housing, there can be some economic benefit for the church as well as to those needing to be housed. In some cases, affordable housing developers have provided additional parking for the church.
The MHCH Congregational Land Committee was created to assist churches in exploring the feasibility of using some their property to build affordable housing, often at no cost to the congregation. We are happy to initiate a dialogue with you to discern if building affordable housing on underutilized congregation land is a wise and feasible option.
What Other Congregations and States Are Doing
Garden Grove United Methodist Church entered into a long-term ground lease with Jamboree Housing Corporation, using 2.2 acres of the church’s former parking lots and vacant land to develop 47 units of family housing, 16 units of senior housing, a community center, the Orange County Head Start Learning Center and offices for multiple local non-profits.
Successful examples of using church land:
You might be interested in seeing what other cities are doing around the country. Here are some articles about San Diego, San Antonio, and more:
https://www.curbed.com/2020/2/4/21117310/church-real-estate-san-antonio-homeless-affordable-housing
https://religionnews.com/2019/11/12/yes-in-gods-backyard-to-use-church-land-for-affordable-housing/
Common Questions
Q. We don’t understand much about building housing. Do we have to do this ourselves? If we don’t, when should we reach out for help?
Churches generally do not have all the financial resources, know-how, time and energy to take on a housing project all by themselves. They are often best served by partnering with affordable housing developers who will do all the pre-development, financing, construction, lease up and property management. However, a developer is only engaged once a church has clarified what they feel called to do, so that they can proceed with confidence and choose their development partner wisely. GPAHG’s Congregational Land Committee will help you understand and clarify your goals.
Q. Do we have to pay or sell our property?
Depending on how a deal is structured and what the project’s goals are, a church can have affordable housing built on their property, they don’t have to sell their land, and they don’t have to pay to have it built. A ground lease is a common ownership structure that accomplishes these goals. Churches can also joint venture with developers to be more involved in the day-to-day operations and management of the project.
Q. What properties are often used for housing?
Affordable housing is commonly built on churches’ excess parking lots, excess educational or office buildings, and/or even where chapels or sanctuaries stand. Sometimes new space for church services or offices is built back into the new development.
Q. Can our members live in the new housing?
Housing projects that receive public subsidies must have an open and fair application process. Members who qualify can be encouraged to apply. If a congregations uses SB 4 to build housing, then 5% of the housing can be for congregational staff if they pay for it through their long-term lease or other means.
Q: What if our church does not have the property zoning to allow for affordable housing?
A: Good affordable housing developers have experience in adjusting sites for the proper zoning, yet the certainty and predictability of knowing that there is a commitment on the part of the city to support the project goes a long way in helping to move the project forward. While our team can work any where in the US, our work in Pasadena is significant, with 17 churches demonstrating interest to date. Because of this our team has pitched the concept of an overlay zone to our city, making it possible for any congregation in the city wishing to have affordable housing on their underutilized land, to have the proper zoning by right. We figure this would shave off at least a year in the time it takes to develop the housing and at least $100,000 in the cost.
Q: What does this policy look like and what have you done to get is passed?
Here you will find one of the presentations we have been giving to help the community understand our proposal and to solicit feedback:
BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON CONGREGATIONAL LAND - OVERYLAY ZONE
This provides details on our suggested densities, heights and designs, based on the immediate neighbors creating housing that is sensitive to the neighborhood character. So far, the city has presented this to the Planning Commission and the City Council, not for a vote, but for preliminary input on the use of city time and funds in developing a full proposal to again come back to the Planning Commission and City Council. We also developed a Fact Sheet, based on questions posed by the Planning Commission that you can find here:
There was on more step that Pasadena did—a city wide workshop. This took place on Dec 15th. We were delighted that 112 folks shows up for this. You an find the link here to the article in the Pasadena Now the next day: https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/affordable-housing-in-church-parking-lots-public-meeting-tuesday-reveals-apparent-widespread-support/
Q: What else would be helpful to know about this zoning amendment?
A: We are all learning much as we move forward and gain feedback from the community. One thing we found is that what we are proposing is geared for rental housing, but some churches may want to provide “for sale” housing, which can be done using a ground lease, but our commitment to have the overall average of the income levels of the affordable units to be below 50% of the AMI may be need to adjusted to 80% of the AMI. Jill Shook, our executive director, wrote an article what was published about our reasons for this overlay zone that you might enjoy reading: