Tax-Exempt Land, Volunteer Boards and a Housing Crisis: Vancouver Moves to Help Churches Build Homes

• Councillor Rebecca Bligh asked Vancouver staff to report on helping faith groups redevelop property for housing
• Religious groups own significant tax-exempt land but often lack development expertise
• Central Presbyterian’s redevelopment created a 22-storey tower with 213 rental homes
• First United Church is building 11 storeys with Indigenous social housing

Vancouver city council considered a motion in October 2024 to make it easier for churches and other faith groups to turn their land into affordable housing, Global News reported.

The motion, from councillor Rebecca Bligh, directed city staff to report on how to support faith-based organisations that own substantial tax-exempt property in redeveloping it for housing, including possible policy and regulatory changes. Daily Hive reported that Bligh said religious organisations own significant developable land but “lack the specific knowledge to pursue such projects.”

Examples already exist. According to Daily Hive, Central Presbyterian Church completed a 2018 redevelopment into a 22-storey rental tower with 213 homes, 45 of them below market, with worship space on the lower floors. First Baptist Church’s partnership with developer Westbank produced $96 million in community amenity contributions, including $25 million of in-kind restoration of the 1911 church. Vancouver First Church of the Nazarene proposed a six-storey building with 105 rental homes.

Global News spoke to church leaders. Lindsay Hills, rector of St Mary’s Anglican in Kerrisdale, which built social and seniors’ housing four decades ago, said: “One of the biggest challenges we have faced in having conversations around redevelopment is a volunteer base that might not have the expertise needed in order to push things forward.” At First United Church in the Downtown Eastside, an 11-storey building at 320 East Hastings will include seven floors of Indigenous social housing. “This is about this community in particular in the DTES,” said executive director Amanda Burrows.

The Vancouver debate highlights a gap that Jamaican churches will recognise: land, but not the expertise to develop it. City governments can help with guidance, faster approvals and partnerships. In Jamaica, municipal corporations and housing agencies could offer similar support to churches willing to build homes on their land, turning idle plots into housing while funding church repairs.

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