“We Provided a Home by Repurposing a Church Campus”: A California Developer Lines Up Five Church Sites for Affordable Housing

• National CORE announced a pipeline of affordable homes on surplus church land in July 2021
• Partners included Santa Ana United Methodist, Blessed Sacrament Episcopal and St Joseph’s Episcopal
• Projects include 64 senior units in Placentia and 80 units in Riverside
• Many units are permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people

One of California’s largest non-profit housing developers has made church land a core part of its strategy. National Community Renaissance, known as National CORE, announced in July 2021 a pipeline of affordable housing projects on surplus land owned by congregations across Southern California.

The first, Legacy Square in Santa Ana, was under way on land belonging to Santa Ana United Methodist Church. Others followed: Santa Angelina Senior Housing in Placentia, with 64 units including 21 of permanent supportive housing, with Blessed Sacrament Episcopal Church; Orchard View Gardens Senior Housing in Buena Park, with 66 senior units, with St Joseph’s Episcopal Church; a 74-unit supportive housing development with Nestor United Methodist Church in San Diego, with construction planned for 2022; and Vista de La Sierra in Riverside, 80 units including 34 permanent supportive homes, with La Sierra University Church.

Douglas P. Gillen, chairman of Santa Ana United Methodist Church, explained the congregation’s thinking: “When Santa Ana United Methodist Church saw those who needed a safe place to stay, we provided a home by repurposing a church campus.”

Steve PonTell, National CORE’s president and chief executive, said the organisation was grateful to Santa Ana United Methodist Church “and other religious organizations for repurposing under-utilized land” to help meet California’s affordability crisis.

The pipeline shows the value of scale. Individual congregations rarely have the expertise to finance and build housing, but a developer working with several at once can standardise the process, attract funding and deliver hundreds of homes. It also puts permanent supportive housing, which combines homes with services for people who have been homeless, on land that might otherwise have been sold.

In Jamaica, where many denominations own scattered parcels in several parishes, a similar approach could make sense: a single trusted housing partner working with multiple churches. For diaspora congregations in California and elsewhere, National CORE’s model shows how a church can contribute land without having to become a developer itself.

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