- NYU’s Housing Solutions Lab published a guide to residential development on faith-owned land
- It sets out three tools: land use reform, faster approvals and development assistance
- Atlanta aims for 2,000 homes on church land by 2030 and offered $500,000 in forgivable micro-loans
- Nashville set aside at least $500,000 of a $5 million federal grant for a Faith Based Development Institute
Across the United States, congregations sit on land that could hold homes, but zoning, slow approvals and a lack of development know-how keep most of it idle. In September 2025 the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University’s Furman Center published a policy guide on how state and local governments can change that.
The guide groups the options into three tools. The first is land use reform: adjusting zoning rules on height, parking and density so that housing is allowed on church sites. The second is streamlining. “By-right review processes are ministerial and condition approval on a pre-determined set of objective standards, eliminating lengthy public hearings and on-site visits,” the guide explains. The third is development assistance, which, in the guide’s words, typically convenes “a cohort of experts, practitioners, and policymakers to provide faith-based organizations with technical assistance, mentorship, and access to capital.”
It points to real examples. Atlanta’s Faith-Based Development Initiative aims to build 2,000 units on church-owned property by 2030, and the city’s Faith-Based Initiative Micro Loan Program provided $500,000 in forgivable loans. Nashville received a $5 million federal grant, with at least $500,000 set aside to establish a Faith Based Development Institute. California, Oregon, Washington and Maryland have changed state law, and San Antonio has its own programme. Seattle requires homes built with extra density on religious land to stay affordable for 50 years for households at 60 per cent of area median income, while California requires 80 per cent of units to be affordable to lower-income households.
The guide’s central argument is that governments can “support religious organizations and increase the supply of affordable and market-rate housing” at the same time, by removing barriers rather than spending large sums.
Jamaica has no equivalent toolkit yet. Churches that want to build homes on their land face the same obstacles found in American cities: planning approvals, parish council rules, titles and a lack of development expertise. A simple package of measures, such as clear approval rules for small church housing schemes, technical help from the NHT or the Housing Agency of Jamaica, and seed loans for feasibility studies, could help turn idle church lots into homes. For diaspora professionals in planning and finance, helping to design that toolkit would be a practical contribution.
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