Down to 12 Members, a 150-Year-Old Bronx Church Closed. On Its Land Now Stand 153 Homes for Seniors

• Trinity-Morrisania United Methodist Church in the Bronx closed in 2016 with 12 congregants
• Its site now hosts a 12-storey, 153-unit affordable building for low-income seniors
• The $88 million project reserves over a third of units for formerly incarcerated seniors
• A Methodist agency keeps a 25% ownership stake

When Trinity-Morrisania United Methodist Church in the Bronx closed in 2016, only 12 congregants remained in a church that had stood for about 150 years. Instead of selling the land outright, Methodist leaders partnered with a developer to build a 12-storey home for low-income seniors, Faith & Leadership reported in May 2023.

The Trinity-Rev. William M. James Senior Apartments contain 153 affordable units and began accepting tenants in late 2021. Residents must earn no more than 60% of area median income, and more than a third of the apartments are reserved for formerly incarcerated seniors. The $88 million development was financed through tax-exempt bonds, low-income housing tax credits and government subsidies.

The partners are the United Methodist City Society, a 185-year-old agency supporting Methodist churches in greater New York, which retains a 25% ownership stake; Bronx Pro Group, a real estate development and management company; and the Fortune Society, which provides wraparound services for formerly incarcerated residents. The project was initiated by Rev Dr William Shillady, the society’s former executive director, and continued under Rev Angela M. Redman.

“Affordable housing is mission, by bringing the marginalized into beloved community,” Shillady said. One 70-year-old resident told the publication that he had been told to pack his bags when leaving prison and now felt free in his new home.

The Bronx has one of New York’s largest Jamaican and wider Caribbean populations, and many older migrants there face high rents on fixed incomes. The Trinity-Morrisania model, in which a declining church keeps a stake in its land while professionals build and manage housing, offers an alternative to a one-off sale. For churches in Jamaica with shrinking rural congregations and valuable urban plots, it shows a way to keep land working for mission rather than simply cashing it in.

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