Homelessness

A 71-year-old Westmoreland amputee has lived in a Nazarene church’s kitchen for nine months since Hurricane Melissa flattened the house the congregation had built him, with his new home’s frame standing but unfinished for lack of materials.

A Maryland resort town that fined an Episcopal church $1,000 a day for sheltering homeless people in its hall has countersued, claiming the shelter has never been a permitted use under the zoning code.

A Maryland resort town that fined an Episcopal church $1,000 a day for sheltering homeless people in its hall has countersued, claiming the shelter has never been a permitted use under the zoning code.

A family of six in New Market, St Elizabeth, who had lived in a church manse after losing their rented home, has spent eight months in an unfinished church hall since Hurricane Melissa, the Jamaica Star reported.

A Bahamas bishop says his ministry has sought Crown land for 35 years, while its planned 100-bed, $3.5 million Hope City homeless shelter stalled after a disputed half-acre grant on Carmichael Road.

After a newborn died in a homeless tent in Wagga Wagga, faith housing advocates said rezoning church land for housing can cost $150,000 and take a year, while a Nowra church opened a 12-bed shelter in weeks.

An Ohio church whose pastor faced 18 charges for sheltering homeless people in its building has won dismissal of the city’s lawsuit, in a fight over fire codes, zoning and religious freedom.

A Massachusetts judge has ruled that a church’s 26-bed basement homeless shelter is protected by the state’s Dover Amendment on religious land use, defeating a lawsuit brought by two neighbours.

The former Trinity United Methodist Church in Roanoke, Virginia, has been converted into Trinity Commons, 15 one-bedroom apartments for people aged 55 and over, including people who have experienced homelessness.

Bonny Downs Baptist Church in East Ham has started building a new church and day centre topped by eight studios for people with experience of homelessness and two flats for workers, with members raising £120,000 by buying bricks.

Releven’s Winnipeg Declaration urges Canadian faith leaders to turn underused church land into affordable housing, as a third of the country’s 27,000 religious buildings face closure, with projects such as a 110-unit tower at a Winnipeg Anglican church.

Toronto’s Evangel Hall Mission, which houses more than 165 formerly homeless people, argued in a 2025 article that churches redeveloping land must keep affordable community space, not just build housing.

Boston’s vacant Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Jamaica Plain is being converted into 55 affordable rental homes after a $37.6 million tax-exempt bond, with six units set aside for people leaving homelessness.

Facing empty pews, Massachusetts churches are handing over buildings for housing and homeless services, including a Roxbury parish planning 217 mostly affordable homes and a Cambridge church converting its rectory, school and convent into 46 affordable units.

A Honolulu church that hosts 20 state-owned tiny homes for homeless elders and families has been told to return them or buy them for $20,000 each, after an informal arrangement with a former official.