1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
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and his family joined Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church (EACRC) in the early 1980s, when he began teaching philosophy at what is now Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Neglected, vandalized, and vacant buildings sat across Eastern Avenue from the church. The congregation reached out to its low-income neighborhood through the . Members renovated the former parsonage into housing for college students to provide a .
But every Sunday, worshipers looked out the historic church’s beautifully restored windows to urban blight. In 2006, Lee and Judy Hardy and 13 EACRC households formed Restoration Row LLC. “We planned to buy five individually owned properties and hand them off to a nonprofit to develop affordable housing across from our church. It was patient capital. We just wanted to break even. I thought it would take about five years,” Hardy recalls.
It was 14 years before opened. All but four of the 65 apartments in the new buildings rent at less than market rate. Steepleview’s low- to moderate-income tenants include young adults who have aged out of foster care and residents who are incubating neighborhood businesses in six work/live units.
Restoration Row gradually acquired property, convinced (ICCF) to develop it, and waited for ICCF to receive low-income housing tax credits. Meanwhile, Hardy researched, taught, and wrote about . And he used a from the 91 to explore how congregations and faith-based nonprofits are tackling homelessness and housing insecurity. The result is a comprehensive website that also has liturgical resources for including housing ministry in worship.
The grant helped Hardy travel across North America and to the Netherlands to learn how communities of faith use their resources to support affordable housing. His website shares stories of how congregations identified their land, money, parking lots, time, building, and partners as abundant resources to shelter people.
“Most churches have a standing resource in willing volunteer labor, and most have a benevolence fund that could in part support affordable housing in their communities,” Hardy says. His website profiles two churches—Madison Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Hughson Street Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario—whose for worship, affordable housing, and support services.
Hardy explains that finding land is a huge barrier for developing affordable housing, but that “some churches, especially in suburban and exurban locations, own land that could be used to that end.
“The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado recently conducted a study in a five-county area surrounding Denver. It discovered that . The alliance partnered with , a faith-based architectural and real estate development firm, to launch . It helps churches envision how vacant land under their stewardship could be used to address local housing needs," Hardy says.
St. John’s Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado, living with chronic disease, mental health challenges, or substance abuse. The new six-story building, , includes support staff offices, a resident community response manager, and beautiful common spaces.
First Congregational Church in Longmont, Colorado, reconfigured its parking area to for people with very low incomes and high ages or disabilities. Discovery Christian Church has a 19-acre campus near Broomfield, a Denver suburb. It leased two acres for $1 a year so Habitat for Humanity could build four triplex units for low-income households.
Hardy’s experience with Steepleview Apartments showed him the staggering need for affordable housing and complexity of developing it. That’s why he advises faith communities to collaborate. Broad partnerships also help combat “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) pushback.
“There’s a 900-person waiting list for Steepleview. That shows how demand far outweighs the supply of affordable housing,” he says. A 2020 study showed that by 2025, especially for people with low to moderate incomes.
Photo: Steepleview Apartments and Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church
Creating a successful affordable-housing project requires expertise in consulting neighbors, getting clear titles to property, navigating finances, vetting applicants, maintaining buildings, and more. Although few (if any) congregations have such expertise in affordable housing best practices, Hardy says that churches can be valuable partners in building community. “Steepleview has a community meeting room, childcare room, and ICCF staff member/resident who focuses on programming and mentorship,” he explains. “It’s not just apartments and hallways. Our church invites residents to join our streamed worship and pick up weekly food boxes. We look forward to when we can kick off in-person relationships with a big picnic.”
The website Hardy developed during his grant project shows how churches, clergy groups, denominational organizations, businesses, and nonprofits to build tiny home villages in Denver and Detroit. The latter, , offers a “rent, then own” option to help formerly homeless people build generational wealth. , founded by small Protestant Hispanic churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has strengthened its community through housing, the arts, education, economic development, and advocacy.
Sometimes people like the idea of more affordable housing—just not in their neighborhoods. “Those of us in the middle class would sometimes rather give money to a homeless shelter than welcome a low-income or mixed-income housing project, “ Hardy says. “It chips away at our privilege of living in an exclusive area. We tend to demonize cost-burdened renters as morally deficient. But we can learn from the . We can join denominational or interfaith alliances such as to help make good projects happen.”
A mapped development potential on faith-based land in five Southern California counties. YIGBY’s home page notes: “San Diego County has 1,188 parcels zoned as religious use. The faith community holds over 4,675 acres of land, much of it already zoned for housing. Most can accommodate residential with no property tax.” Working together through YIGBY helps faith partners quickly scale up affordable housing through innovative projects such as .
Christian worship can help individuals and congregations see vulnerable unhoused people “for the first time and see Christ in them—for Christ clearly identified with the neighbor in need (Matthew 25),” Hardy says. He hired , who teaches liturgical theology at Western Theological Seminary (WTS); , a WTS grad; and , a Canadian poet, to compile and write his website’s .
“Churches can bring the needs of the homeless and the housing-insecure before the community of faith by way of lament, confession, and intercession. The website has prayers, songs and hymns, preaching texts, and liturgies for worship services and other occasions. Our church used these resources when we dedicated Steepleview and when we did a house blessing for a nearby house that we adopted through .
“The worship suggestions also work well if your church takes an offering for Habitat for Humanity or commissions people for a housing-related mission trip. Even if your faith community hasn’t yet gotten involved in affordable housing, you can use these ideas to raise awareness,” Hardy says.
The worship resources have a strong justice theme, he says, and the website includes advocacy advice because “I've learned that no true worship is acceptable to God without a commitment to justice. Communities of faith alive to the passion of God and the plight of the poor will see that a response to the current housing crisis is not just an optional external program of the church. It is central to living out the faith, where, as the Book of Common Prayer states, we ‘.’ĝ
Explore Lee Hardy’s for faith community stories and worship resources. Read his book . Be sure to scroll down to see fascinating photos related to that book. Learn about the project.
, based in Greenville, SC, interviewed Lee Hardy and other experts for two podcast episodes. In , the panelists discuss suburban sprawl and urban development, and Hardy explains how he got interested in New Urbanism. In , the panelists explore the multifaceted aspects of urban renewal.
Watch short videos about repurposing (4:15) and (7:22) into housing.
Reading “” in Atlantic Monthly in 1996 introduced Lee Hardy to the concept of , which promotes environmentally-friendly, walkable cities with a wide range of jobs, housing, and human diversity. He joined (CNU) and is now the affordable housing contact for CNU's .
Understand how federal work in the US. The global pandemic has intensified housing insecurity for growing numbers of people, especially people of color, in , the , , and .
The nonprofit helps communities develop a process to solve homelessness. One essential step is to get better data by using a rather than depending on annual counts. , and , have reached for homelessness.
Feel free to print and distribute this story to your staff, board, or education, social concerns, and worship committees. These questions will help people start a conversation about how your faith community can take a approach to housing insecurity:
