Houses of faith are building affordable housing on their properties

Enterprise [Community Partner]’s Faith-Based Development Initiative launched in 2006 in the Mid-Atlantic region, where it has helped faith-based organizations create or preserve more than 1,500 affordable homes and one community-based health clinic.

“It’s this notion of there’s a compelling human need that a house of worship exists in and it’s sitting on a resource. It becomes a stewardship issue. Is this something that God is calling us to do … that allows us to be good and faithful stewards to have more impact?” David Bowers, vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, told Religion News Service.

“Does this mean every house of worship should do it? No. What we are saying is that you have the need. You have the resource. There is potential to get this done in a way that helps provide for the needs of people who are living in the community in which houses of worship exist,” added Bowers, who is also an ordained minister.

Similar approaches are happening in other parts of the nation. [And several faith communities are actively exploring this concept in Pierce County!]

Read the full article at this link.