Houses of worship continue to use their spaces in novel ways that serve their community.
One model that some congregations use is space sharing, occupying their building alongside other community organizations. Riverside Church recently shared its space with the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers. Bricks and Mortals founder and board chair Donna Schaper published an op-ed in Crain's New York highlighting the transformative power of space sharing.
In addition to space sharing, many congregations have pursued development opportunities. IKAR, a Los Angeles synagogue, acquired land to build 55 units of housing for the homeless. The United Methodist City Society transformed a Bronx church into senior housing. In Seattle, the Catholic Archdiocese is pursuing affordable housing development on some of its properties.
There are currently debates amongst many faith communities about how to best leverage their assets, including conversations about selling air rights, which received an extensive write-up in Crain's New York this week.
This week, several articles highlight the ways in which faith communities are turning to digital technologies to conduct their ministries.
At a time when cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens have become more popular than ever, despite criticisms and cautions from many, some have created faith-based or faith-adjacent NFTs. A new service called "Eternal Prayer" allows individuals to "commemorate their prayers for all time on the blockchain," a business model that some have compared to the abusive sale of indulgences. Another new NFT, "Mosque NFT," is selling non-fungible tokens to raise funds to build a new mosque in the metaverse as well as support charities that build mosques in real life worldwide. But embrace of new digital technologies by faith communities is ethically complicated: an op-ed in Religion Dispatches encourages us to imagine a metaverse free of the surveillance capitalist profit motive.
Houses of worship are an important resource for many immigrant communities. A story in the Manchester Ink Link highlights Reverend Sandra Pontoh of Madbury, New Hampshire, who serves as the founder and pastor of Maranatha Indonesian UCC Church, which serves New Hampshire's Indonesian community, including ministry work to provide translation at hospitals and court dates.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a concurrent crisis in mental health, including in young adults as reported recently by the CDC. An op-ed by Omar Suleiman in Religion News Service highlighted the role religious observance played in Muslim communities maintaining their mental health throughout the ongoing pandemic.
The continued conflict in Ukraine has led many Ukrainians to take asylum, including in the United States. Many faith communities are stepping up to aid Ukrainian refugees, such as this Philadelphia Orthodox congregation which is housing refugees in its rectory. Of course, refugees come from many places all over the world, and the Church World Service issued a statement this week highlighting the global scale of the refugee crisis.
Many neighborhood activists decry the construction of new housing, claiming that new construction raises real estate prices, contributing to the gentrification and displacement cycle. A study of neighborhood markets in San Francisco suggested that new buildings do contribute to neighborhood churn, of people moving out, but that many low-income people moved into neighborhoods even after new buildings went up.
A large contributing factor to the affordability crisis for homeowners has been the rise of corporate property owners. For residents of mobile home parks, the expansion of corporate manufactured housing portfolios has meant less affordable housing options and increased rents.
But many are trying to create tools and solutions that help put power back in the hands of everyday people. JustFix.NYC has developed a tool to help renters identify the owner of their building and see what other buildings they own; previously, the complicated structures of LLCs made this process onerous for renters. In Charlotte, North Carolina, neighborhood residents have turned to an unlikely tool, HOA regulations, to slow corporate investment in their majority-Black neighborhood and preserve affordable homeownership opportunities. In California, lawmakers have proposed a "house flipper" tax of 25% on those who sell homes for higher prices shortly after purchasing.
While most of the examples we cover here are US-based, housing affordability is an issue around the globe. Home prices in countries such as United Kingdom and Mexico are rising at rates that working class people cannot afford.
