“The Hands and Feet of Jesus”: A Tacoma Baptist Church Opens 60 Affordable Apartments Across the Street

• Shiloh Baptist Church of Tacoma opened 60 affordable apartments in two buildings
• The project was a long-held vision of the church’s late pastor
• Construction began in August 2023 and both buildings were open by January 2025
• Public funding and tax credits covered much of the nearly $34 million cost

A Baptist congregation in Tacoma, Washington, has finished building 60 affordable apartments across the street from its sanctuary, completing a vision that began with its late pastor E.S. Brazill, The Christian Post reported in May 2025.

Shiloh Baptist Church’s project, Shiloh New Life Apartments, is made up of two buildings. Construction started in August 2023. The first building, named for Lily V. Brazill, opened in September 2024, and the second, named for James and Marilyn Walton, opened in January 2025. James Walton was Tacoma’s first Black city manager.

The News Tribune in Tacoma reported that the project cost nearly $34 million. Its funding included more than $14.4 million through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission’s low-income housing tax credits, about $6 million from the state Department of Commerce, more than $5 million from Pierce County and more than $4.4 million from the City of Tacoma’s Community Redevelopment Authority.

Pastor Chavis Young said the church had responded to the pressure housing costs were putting on families with low or fixed incomes. “We felt a deep spiritual and moral call to respond,” he said. He credited the idea to the church’s late pastor, E.S. Brazill: “This was birthed from the heart of Pastor E.S. Brazill, who wanted to create low-income housing on that land.” Young added: “These housing units are more than buildings — they are a living testimony of what it looks like when the Church becomes the hands and feet of Jesus.”

The project shows how a congregation with land and patience can combine its property with public money to deliver housing on a scale it could never fund alone. The church contributed the vision and the site; tax credits and government grants did most of the financial lifting.

Jamaican churches have long helped members find a roof, usually one house at a time. The Tacoma model suggests something larger is possible when a church holds clear title to land, forms a housing arm and works with agencies such as the NHT or the Housing Agency of Jamaica. For diaspora congregations in North America, it is a proven path to turn church land into homes for members and neighbours.

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