80 Homes for People on the Edge: A California Church Partners on Supportive Housing Beside Its Ministries

• Grace Bible Fellowship of Antioch and Novin Development Corp. developed Grace Commons
• The four-storey building has 80 deeply affordable supportive homes on 1.3 acres
• Units range from 345-square-foot studios to 675-square-foot three-bedrooms
• Residents include people with developmental disabilities and at-risk youth and families

In July 2025 Novin Development Corp. published details of Grace Commons, a supportive housing project it developed with Grace Bible Fellowship of Antioch in California.

The four-storey building at 3415 Oakley Road stands on 1.3 acres at a density of 62 units per acre. It provides 80 homes: 40 studios of 345 square feet, 19 one-bedroom units of 455 square feet and 21 three-bedroom units of 675 square feet. The homes are deeply affordable permanent supportive housing for extremely low-income residents, including people with special needs, individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and at-risk young people and families.

The church’s role goes beyond providing land. According to the developer, Grace Bible Fellowship offers “congregation activities, hot meals, daycare, an after-school program, a youth center, sports fields, a rehabilitation house, and seasonal programming.” The building includes caseworker offices, community rooms, gardens and a play area.

Funding came from the City of Antioch, Grace Bible Fellowship, Contra Costa County and 9 per cent federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The mix shows how a congregation’s own contribution can be combined with public funding when it partners with an experienced developer that knows how to assemble tax credits and grants.

Supportive housing, where homes come with on-site help, is one of the hardest forms of housing to deliver, and one where churches have a natural advantage because they already run meals, counselling and youth programmes. In Jamaica, church-run homes for children, the elderly and people with disabilities already do a version of this, often in older buildings. A project like Grace Commons shows what purpose-built supportive homes next to an active congregation can look like. For Jamaican churches abroad, it is a model worth studying and possibly bringing home.

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