Across the country, more and more places of worship are using their tax benefits to build housing on their property.
From tiny homes in parking lots to full-on apartment complexes, congregations are stepping up to help those in their time of need, even leading to legislation and social movements called “Yes In God’s Backyard.”
To make these efforts easier, there’s the Interfaith Affordable Housing Collaborative. It’s a New York-based nonprofit that helps faith-based organizations figure out how to build affordable housing on their property.
The group is made up of experts in the housing industry who guide faith leaders through technical and logistical challenges, support them in acquiring loans, and ensure their interests are protected throughout the pre-development process.
The goal is to reach the hundreds of congregations with space to share, and make it accessible for them to turn those ideas into reality.
“Faith communities are really the perfect entities to do housing,” Rashida Tyler of the Interfaith Affordable Housing Collaborative told Shelterforce.
“Churches and faith-based organizations are best positioned to act as a model for how real estate actually should be, which is centering people.”
First, representatives of the initiative support faith-based groups to figure out if they even have the resources and capacity to develop a housing project. From there, they help develop a “scope of work” for these organizations, which leads to applications for forgivable pre-development loans of up to $30,000.
The collaborative also works to secure development partners, negotiate contracts, and more.
“It was really in response to seeing a lot of churches, particularly in New York City, [being] exploited by developers who basically came in and said, ‘Sign here, I’ll build what you want,’” Rev. Peter Cook, the collaborative’s vice president, told Shelterforce.
“We just felt like faith-based institutions needed to have a structured process on their side to know how to work with developers.”
A rendering of the new Tree of Life development in Queens. Photo courtesy of the First Jamaica Community & Urban Development Corporation
The group has already had its share of success stories, but one stand-out case study is the “Tree of Life” housing development in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York.
Construction has begun on a mixed use project that will include commercial and worship spaces — as well as the neighborhood’s largest affordable housing complex to date.
“Once complete, the Tree of Life building will be worthy of its name, giving families of low and moderate incomes the opportunity they need to live the quality of life they deserve,” City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, said at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new development.
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2026 Home Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image by Emily Xie on Unsplash
