“Our Church Was Struggling”: A Fort Lauderdale AME Congregation Opens 104 Affordable Homes for Seniors

• Mount Hermon Apartments opened with 104 affordable units for people aged 62 and over
• Rents range from $433 to $1,422 a month
• The project began with one pastor in 2018 and was finished by his son
• It sits in Fort Lauderdale’s historically Black Dorsey-Riverbend neighbourhood

A Fort Lauderdale church facing an ageing congregation and a neighbourhood short of affordable homes has answered both problems with one building. Mount Hermon Apartments, with 104 affordable rental units for seniors aged 62 and over, has opened at 750 NW Fourth Street in the Dorsey-Riverbend neighbourhood, Local 10 News reported.

The project was started in 2018 by the Rev Henry E. Green Jr of Mount Hermon African Methodist Episcopal Church and completed under his son, the Rev Henry E. Green III. “At that particular time, our church was struggling. We had an aging congregation and the community around us did not have affordable housing,” the younger Green said. Ground was broken in 2023, with the church partnering with Housing Trust Group and the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Rents run from $433 to $1,422 a month. Green said the priority was keeping people rooted: “Number one, that a lot of people who are being displaced from this area have a place to call home.”

City Commissioner Robert McKinzie said location mattered. “It’s in a historically Black neighborhood. It was important that you kept the community pieces there and affordability and access,” he said. AME Bishop Marvin C. Zanders II framed the project in pastoral terms: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Broward County is home to one of the largest Jamaican communities in the United States, and many older diaspora members there are feeling the squeeze of South Florida rents. A church that pairs its land and reputation with an experienced developer can keep elders in their neighbourhood, and the same model could serve Jamaica, where many churches sit on land in town centres while seniors and returning residents struggle to find affordable, secure places to live.

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