Breaking New Ground through Affordable Housing
Transforming Lives, Churches and Cities
We are breaking new ground with our affordable housing efforts this summer. We are celebrating the groundbreaking of
Heritage Square South, 69 units of supportive housing for homeless seniors, that we successfully advocated for. We
are excited that our Community Land Trust team has formed a groundbreaking nonprofit to carry
forward its work in the San Gabriel Valley. Our Congregational Land team now has over 57 churches
interested in having affordable housing built on their underutilized land, and
a church in Laguna Beach is on the verge of moving forward with its project.
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 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.”
With several cities planning to
rezone congregational land for affordable housing, and numerous churches
seriously interested in this option, we are at a tipping point. Our goal is to
have churches plan for 1,000 units of affordable housing in the next year. To
reach this goal, we'll need to expand our efforts and need your support. Please
give as generously as you can. We also need monthly donors to help sustain our work. Thank you for your support and encouragement!