Pdt. Paul Anthony Daniels knows the names and life stories of those sleeping in cars near St. Mary, a church in Palms.
In the past, homeless people have stayed in St. John’s Sunday school rooms.
So it wasn’t a big leap for Daniels to think about building affordable housing on church property.
A place to sleep, shower and cook “provides basic dignity” that can revive people’s lives and also help the environment, Daniels said.
“Homeless people are part of this community,” he said. “Not only in the sense that we shelter them, but also in the sense that they live literally around the property.”
In Los Angeles, some religious leaders are making their own property measurements, encouraged by new laws to make it easier to develop the land.
A California law that went into effect January 1 allows affordable housing projects in property owned by churches, temples, mosques and other religious institutions to pass an extensive review process and built in single-family neighborhoods. The City of Los Angeles is considering more exemptions.
Aerial view of St. Mary in Palms, center, where some of the land owned by the church can finally be rented for affordable housing.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
In LA, which has little vacant land, sky-high rents and a homeless population that topped 45,000 at last count, affordable housing advocates see religious institutions — often land-rich but cash-poor — as an untapped resource.
For religious leaders, building their own houses can be a way to fulfill their mission of helping the poor. And with many congregations shrinking as Americans become less religious, the revenue from the development will help fill their meager collection boxes.
But some real estate experts question whether many religious organizations will eventually seek to build, considering the necessary buy-in from members and governing boards. Years of construction near the sanctuary can be a hindrance, as well as opposition from the neighborhood.
Several cities, including Chino, Rancho Palos Verdes, Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks, opposed the new state law while it was being debated in Sacramento. Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said it would strip local governments of their power to control development, “replacing carefully crafted, locally informed plans.”
Leaders in St. The small congregation is close-knit, with a few dozen people attending a typical Sunday service in the diminutive, brown-shingled church. Affordable housing projects will add to church coffers, probably through leasing fees paid by developers.
Property St. Mary includes two main buildings, a house and six parking spaces in a narrow space in an apartment building neighborhood. Daniels, who has led St.
Pdt. Paul Anthony Daniels, rector of St Mary in Palms.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
In South Los Angeles, with many historically Black churches, many congregations are still reeling from the pandemic and declining attendance.
Regina Fair, a board member at Bethel AME-Los Angeles, said her church drew several hundred people on Sunday but had cut one sermon.
Like other churches, Bethel AME, founded in 1921, is relying on livestreaming during the pandemic lockdown and using social media to reach young people. That all means fewer dollars on the collection plate.
“People are becoming OK with doing church at home, in their couches,” Fair said. “And if you are not in the church, it makes a big impact on giving.”
Bethel AME, which faces South Western Avenue lined with businesses and apartment buildings, has begun a multiyear plan to develop affordable housing in the parking lot.
The 53-unit project, which benefits from city ordinances intended to track affordable housing, will house some of the homeless who sleep at the church in cots during the winter. The church also plans to build homes on two parcels it owns.
Logos Faith Housing, which developed the property, was started by the pastor to help the church build affordable housing. Bethel rents land for a group of backers in what the leader of the church, Rev. Kelvin T. Calloway, describes it as a “perfect model” to bring in revenue over a long period of time.
Calloway has seen gentrification change other neighborhoods in South LA, leaving fewer people to worship in the pews. That hasn’t happened much in Bethel AME’s Manchester Square neighborhood, but “it’s a real possibility,” he said.
Pastor Martin Porter, managing partner of Logos Faith Development LLC, a real estate development company focused on working with religious entities, in the parking lot of Bethel AME Church in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“Christianity is in crisis,” said Logos founder Pastor Martin Porter, who leads Quinn African Methodist Episcopal in Moreno Valley. “You see a lot of empty benches. The natural question is: What should we do with the excess of unused property?
Bethel AME does not need the new state law, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), to develop the property.
But in LA, at least 600 sites owned by faith-based groups in single-family neighborhoods are now eligible to build affordable housing, according to the city’s Department of Planning. City officials could not provide information on whether any applications have been filed under the law in the past eight months.
Wiener predicts it will take several years for some projects to launch — especially as religious institutions figure out how to approach the opportunity.
“It’s usually not a major financial player,” The Times said. “They are churches or synagogues, not development companies.”
“It’s a big problem,” said Pastor John Oh, home faith project manager at LA Voice, a community organization that supports the law.
Oh sees it as a potential “domino” that could lead to other zoning changes in single-family neighborhoods, which have long been considered by political leaders as off-limits to multi-unit development.
LA’s city planning department has come up with a version that, unlike Wiener’s law, doesn’t require construction workers to be paid, or, in larger projects, to provide health care.
The proposal, which is expected to come before the City Council in the next six months, is intended to appease affordable housing developers who say higher wages and benefits could add 30% to costs.
Labor unions, including the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, opposed it.
Pete Rodriguez, vice president of the fraternity’s western district, called the proposal “outrageous” and suggested it could exacerbate the crisis of homelessness by the working poor.
“When will the city of LA realize that many of our problems, from homelessness to budget deficits, are due to the fact that too many Angelenos can’t make ends meet?” said.
Wiener declined to comment on the city’s proposal. He said the law prioritizes protections for construction workers, who can be targets for wage theft.
Some development experts privately question whether religious entities in single-family neighborhoods want to build affordable housing, with possible resistance.
In Laguna Beach, some residents objected to a church plan to build affordable housing under Wiener’s law. A petition against the development on the Neighborhood Congregational Church property has gathered around 1,500 signatures.
“It affects the entire community by changing the character of the neighborhood and adding to existing problems such as traffic congestion and lack of parking,” the petition said.
But Bishop Lovester Adams, who heads the Greater New St. Missionary Baptist Church. Matthew in a single-family residential area in South LA, is not shy. He called Wiener’s legislation and the city’s proposal a “game changer.”
Adams, who is also a senior associate at Logos Development, said he could not afford to build a house in the parking lot of the church at 36th and Crawford streets unless the city passes the employee exemption.
The church, which dates from the 1960s, is located between the house and the duplex. Church leaders regularly give food and toys to needy residents.
Attendance has dropped since the pandemic, Adams said. Sunday services draw 50 to 70 people, which fill less than half the seats. Some parents are staying away because of concerns about COVID-19.
Adams said he wants veterans to live in new homes: “There’s a huge need there.”
IKAR CEO Melissa Balaban stands in the parking lot of the foundation where affordable housing will be developed in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
On South Fairfax Avenue in Mid-Wilshire, the IKAR Jewish congregation is building an affordable housing complex for formerly homeless senior citizens in a parking lot.
The project was built through Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive 1, which accelerated affordable housing, said IKAR executive director Melissa Balaban. State laws pushed by IKAR reduce the amount of parking required.
Balaban said IKAR does not rely on the project, which is funded by a non-profit developer, to generate income for the congregation.
“We hope that what we are doing will not only provide 60 houses, but we hope that it will inspire other faith communities,” he said.
In the Palms, St. Mary member Julia Bergstrom, 72, is enthusiastic about the idea of affordable housing on church property.
He has seen the number of people living in RVs rise and fall, and he finds waiting years for Section 8 housing vouchers to be “ridiculous.”
While he worries about the changes at the “lovely little church” he’s attended since 2008, “it doesn’t stop, and it doesn’t make me sad about anything,” he said.
