Here's your weekly roundup of news and media related to Bricks and Mortals's mission.
Enterprise Community Partners announced that they have received $8.5 million from Wells Fargo to help houses of worship convert underutilized land into affordable housing.
Across the country, former church buildings are being transformed into housing. In South Los Angeles, 47-unit supportive housing building is taking the place of a church. In Bushwick, Bruklyn Builders has filed paperwork to build a 30-unit residential building at 1374 Myrtle Avenue, the location of a storefront Pentecostal Church.
Two stories this week highlighted the problems that can occur when communication between congregations and leadership breaks down. A pastor in Harlem has faced ongoing legal challenges after State Attorney General Letitia James claimed that he pocketed thousands of dollars as part of a development deal to build an apartment building that would include space for the church. Some community members in Harlem have taken the delayed construction as an opportunity to protest the proposed development -- which would be used as shelter for homeless families -- instead calling for more general affordable housing. In Miami, a proposed 80-story tower to be built over the First Miami Presbyterian Church may be scuttled by a church member's lawsuit and calls for a second congregational vote and smaller condo sizes in the proposed development.
Houses of Faith and Mission Work
Ukrainian American communities and their supporters continue to hold vigils and gather in prayer for those impacted by the Russian invasion of ukraine. Communities gathered all over the United States and the world, including in New York's East Village, Northeast Ohio, Los Angeles, and many other places, especially those with large Ukrainian American populations.
In Newark, the Metropolitan Baptist Church held a "Day of Hope and Healing" service celebrating their work over the past two years to get their community tested and vaccinated for COVID-19. Through their Choose Healthy Life program, they were also able to address medical issues that impact African American communities disproportionately, including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
Religion News published an op-ed highlighting the work of youth ministries, and the adaptations they must make to retain members and grow in a rapidly changing climate.
Christianity Today ran an obituary for Ray Bakke, an evangelical theologian who advocated for integration and urban missiology.
Housing supply can be significantly impacted by the institutions in a neighborhood; large universities can drive up housing costs in a community as additional people move in to be close to school or work. In California, UC Berkeley is considering issuing more rejection letters because of a student housing shortage, as some loud local activists push back on additional development. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of University of Michigan, city officials are considering "unzoning" in order to encourage dense, mixed use development and create more housing stock in the city.
The affordable housing crisis has very large impacts on working class peoples' finances, but also on their general wellbeing. A recent study found that housing uncertainty and precarity led to worse mental health outcomes for renters during the COVID-19 pandemic than their peers who own homes.
While programs are being designed to providing housing to people experiencing homelessness, in San Francisco, hundreds of units dedicated for assisted housing are sitting unused due to bureaucratic hurdles while the scale of the homelessness crisis in the Bay Area increases.
In a talk at George Washington University, secretary of housing and urban development Marcia Fudge spoke on racial disparities in the urban housing market.
In Urban Omnibus, Susanne Schindler discusses January's fire at Twin Parks in the Bronx, highlighting the paradox of private and public affordable housing development in the United States.
