United States

St Bartholomew’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Crown Heights, a 1974 landmark, has been listed as a development site with about 181,000 square feet of as-of-right space after a rezoning, prompting calls to protect the complex.

A historic Texas chapel with an 1860s cemetery is at the centre of a dispute after its congregation left the Methodist denomination and the conference said it was using the property without consent.

A Miami-Dade Baptist church plans 37 townhomes on its own land, priced in the $400,000s for households at or below 120% of area median income, in a bid to turn renters into owner-occupiers rather than sell to investors.

Virginia’s new Faith in Housing Act eliminates rezoning entirely for churches building affordable housing on their own land, the most aggressive YIGBY law yet. Early results elsewhere suggest legal clearance alone doesnt guarantee construction.

Mason Temple in Memphis, world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ and the site of Martin Luther King Jr’s final speech, is to receive a $1.2 million federal grant for technology, foundation and structural work.

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.

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.

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.

A Connecticut pastor with six idle acres behind his church urged lawmakers in 2026 to pass a bill giving church housing projects a faster review, telling them: “We have the land, we have the heart, we need a simple process.”

Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, led by Mark Driscoll, paid $15.5 million for a vacant 116,200-square-foot office complex on seven acres, financed largely through an Assemblies of God lender, to replace its overcrowded campus.

First and St Stephen’s United Church of Christ in Towson, Maryland, sold its building for $1.1 million to a local resident who is letting the congregation keep using it free of charge until September 2026.

In Carthage, Texas, a growing Assemblies of God congregation and a Baptist church that needed less space swapped buildings with no money changing hands. Both churches then grew by about 30 per cent.

A Christian Science church site in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, approved for a 261-unit tower with a new church space, headed to a foreclosure auction after a $6.8 million developer loan matured with more than $8.4 million owed.

Hungry Generation, a Washington state church that held four services a week, has moved into a 40,000-square-foot building in Kennewick after raising $11 million over four years and buying land in stages.

California’s Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa, in bankruptcy since 2023 and facing 260 abuse claims, listed five more properties including a 12.44-acre Napa Valley vineyard, after selling two unused churches in 2025.