When Americans discuss the housing shortage, the conversation usually begins with construction.
“We need to build more homes.”
“We need faster construction methods.”
“We need more skilled labor, more modular housing, more efficient permitting and lower material costs.”
All of that is true. But before anyone can build a home, the project needs something even more fundamental: land.
In many of the communities where housing is needed most, the cost of acquiring that land can make an otherwise worthwhile project financially impossible before the first architectural sketch. A developer may then spend several additional years navigating entitlements, permits and agency reviews while carrying the cost of the property, financing and professional teams.
That means America doesn’t merely have a construction problem. It has a land-access problem, a regulatory-timing problem, and a predevelopment-capital problem as well.
Yet, ironically, there is a great deal of land that could help already held by institutions deeply rooted in the communities experiencing the shortage.
Across the country, churches and other faith-based organizations own parking areas, aging buildings and underused parcels. Many would like those properties to serve their neighborhoods more meaningfully. At the same time, they may be facing declining facility use, growing maintenance expenses or pressure to sell property simply to preserve the organization’s financial health.
However, a rising organization — OLOS Impact — believes the opportunity in meshing these complementary needs is not to treat churches as convenient land sellers. It is to treat them as long-term housing partners.
New and Better Questions About Church Property
The conventional real estate question is straightforward: What could this property be sold for?
With the right development structure, underused faith-owned land may be able to support attainable, workforce, mixed-income, senior or other community-serving housing. The organization can potentially retain a long-term interest in the property, strengthen its financial position, modernize ministry space and expand its community impact.
The community gains housing. The church gains a more sustainable asset. Developers and investors gain access to projects that may become more feasible because the land does not need to be purchased through a conventional transaction.
That does not mean every church property is suitable for housing. Zoning, infrastructure, neighborhood context, environmental conditions, financing and the organization’s own mission must all be evaluated. Some sites will not work.
But too many potentially useful properties are never seriously considered because church leaders understandably do not know where to begin — or because the only proposals they receive require them to sell.
Housing Is an Ecosystem. Not a Solo Project.
The housing crisis is too large for any one sector to solve.
Developers are essential, but so are local officials, capital providers, technology companies, nonprofits, community organizations and policymakers. Faith institutions can become another important participant because they contribute something extraordinarily difficult to replicate: land combined with longstanding community relationships.
This requires developers to approach projects differently.
OLOS CEO and Founder Christopher Montes maintains that instead of, “How do we control this opportunity?” our first questions should be, “What does this organization hope to accomplish, and who needs to participate to make that outcome possible?”
A church may bring land, neighborhood knowledge and a vision for service. A developer may bring entitlement, construction and project-management experience. Capital partners make the project financeable. Technology can help evaluate zoning, density, project economics and likely community impact before either side spends heavily on a concept that will not work.
Out of the right discussions, aligned partnerships can emerge.
