Some churches are adding affordable housing units to their main sanctuary buildings.

​Madison Church / Grand Rapids, Michigan

New construction projects like Hughson Street Baptist in Hamilton, Ontario (see below), are not the only way for churches to include affordable housing in their buildings. Madison Church, a multi-site Grand Rapids, Michigan, congregation, is making plans to renovate an existing building to house its Ford campus worship services and to address pressing needs for affordable housing and supportive services in its community.

Madison’s community involvement efforts are informed by a complex history and a tradition of pursuing justice. Its existing Ford campus is positioned along a dividing line between affluent and low-income neighborhoods in an area where racial tension lingers from a history of discrimination. Madison Church sees its location as an opportunity to form relationships across dividing lines. However, the story behind the division – as well as the way forward in overcoming it – is complex.

An atrium for the inner courtyard under construction

Originally located at 415 Franklin, Grand Rapids Christian High School split into two campuses in the early 1960s. The Franklin Street campus—just blocks from the school building that currently houses Madison Church’s Ford campus today—was renamed Central Christian. It enjoyed growth and success for nearly a decade. In 1972, however, the school decided to recombine its campuses, selling the Franklin building to Kent County’s Department of Social Services. In an era of growing disinvestment and white flight from the city center, many perceived the withdrawal of the school as symbolic of the church’s withdrawal from broken places.

Ed DeVries, a local developer and alumnus of Grand Rapids Central Christian, acquired the Franklin building in 2009 after the county social services moved into a new building of its own. Leaders at Madison Church’s Ford campus immediately began talking with DeVries about using the school’s chapel space for worship services. In 2015, DeVries Companies donated the entire building to Madison Church with the charge of using the space to glorify God and invest in the community. For Madison, this was the perfect opportunity to move forward with their decades-old vision of reversing the story of injustice that continues to divide their neighborhood.

Entrance to the chapel for Madison Church

Intent on satisfying DeVries’ request, church leaders began discussing their best strategies for serving the community. They soon realized that in order to meet the needs of the surrounding community, they must listen to their neighbors to determine what those needs are and how they should be addressed. After years of conversation between the church and its community, Madison Church determined plans for its new building. Central Christian’s old chapel space will be used for worship on Sunday mornings, as originally planned. The rest of the first floor, used for children’s ministry on Sundays, will house church offices and an early childhood education center operated by the Refugee Education Center, a local organization that welcomes refugees in the area and helps them navigate life in a new cultural context. The building’s second and third floors will be used for 42 units of affordable housing in partnership with Inner-City Christian Federation (ICCF), a local faith-based non-profit housing organization that will move its headquarters into the building as well. The entire project is set to be finished by the fall of 2020.

One-bedroom apartment on third floor, under construction

James North Baptist Church / Hamilton, Ontario

James North Baptist Church has been serving the industrial north end of the Canadian city of Hamilton since 1887. Hamilton grew up as a steel town on the southern shores of Lake Ontario. With the demise of the steel industry in in the last decades of the twentieth century, the working-class neighborhoods of the north end experienced much unemployment, poverty, and disinvestment. At present, 41% of the households in the north end of the city live below the poverty line, while only 18% live below the poverty line in the city overall. Disinvestment in the neighborhood set it up in turn for gentrification, especially after the extension of the Go commuter rail line into the community. As investors bought up and improved properties for higher income households, many of James North Baptist parishioners found they could no longer afford the rents. 

James North Baptist Church, Hamilton, Ontario,

With a rapidly growing congregation of people committed to the north end of the city, and in light of the pressing problem gentrification, James North Baptist purchased a 30,000-square foot building at the corner of James and Picton. The church decided to demolish the existing building in order to build a new sanctuary with three floors of affordable housing on top, comprising 45 housing units in all. The total project cost was $19 million; $6.3 million came from government funds for housing. The entire building will receive Passive House Certification according to international standards of energy efficiency established by the Passive House Institute and administered by Passive House Canada. The affordable housing units are now ready for occupancy. 

Architectural drawing for affordable housing above James North Baptist Church sanctuary

James North Baptist pursued its response to the plight of low-income households of the neighborhood in partnership with Indwell, a Hamilton-based Christian charity focused on creating affordable housing communities for vulnerable populations. Jeffrey Neven, Executive Director of Indwell, estimates that Indwell saved some $3 million in construction costs by partnering with James North Baptist. The land had already been purchased by the church. The foundation and roof were already part of the church building project. Indwell just had to fill in the three floors on top.

Indwell began in the early 1970s when John and Siny Prinzen saw a need to support neighbors struggling with mental health problems. They began by accommodating a young woman in their own home. In 1974 they set up a house in downtown Hamilton with house parents and seven residents. Indwell got its start in 2000 with the purchase and rehabilitation of an apartment building. The Indwell program now serves over 600 people in southern Ontario.

Offices of Indwell, Hamilton, Ontario, with attached shared workspace