- Several churches around Michigan plan to build housing to help ease the state’s housing shortage
- A national movement called YIGBY — Yes in God’s Backyard — includes legislation in several states that makes it easier for churches to build housing on their property
- Churches view housing as a way to continue their mission of service to community
Pastor Monique French envisions a thriving neighborhood where residents build wealth through homeownership and reinvest that wealth in their community.
That’s why she and her congregants at Battle Creek’s Washington Heights United Methodist Church are raising money to build 17 homes in one of the Cereal City’s most impoverished neighborhoods. A nonprofit spun off from the historic church has renovated one house already and is seeking money to continue the project.
“It stimulates the community,” French, who also serves as a Calhoun County commissioner, said of her church’s homebuilding efforts. “It revives the hope.”…