San Jose asks churches to lend a hand with housing

San Jose has a homelessness crisis — and the city is turning to religious institutions to lighten the load.

Mayor Matt Mahan held a breakfast and two panel discussions Thursday to educate religious leaders on how church parking lots or empty spaces can be utilized for temporary or affordable housing. By the end of the event, nine groups expressed interest in using their land for housing.

“I believe that our path to a better city and to reaching our full potential as a city is in large part reliant on communities, including our faith communities,” Mahan said during the breakfast.

In the first panel, Pastor Ken Foreman talked with San Jose Housing Director Erik Soliván and Planning Manager Martina Davis on how religious leaders can creatively turn their spaces into housing solutions, a concept dubbed “Yes in God’s Backyard” or YIGBY— mirroring similarly-named movements such as NIMBY and YIMBY.

The second panel focused on ways religious institutions can get involved with beautifying the city and featured workers from Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services.

Foreman’s church, Cathedral of Faith, is looking for funding to build 240 affordable homes across two complexes on its 13.4-acre property, and has partnered with developer Sand Hill Property Company to bring it forth. So far, the church has raised about $13 million out of $200 million needed. Foreman envisions housing older adults, those with disabilities, youth aging out of foster care and families.

“We can step up and be maybe a small part of the solution for affordable housing,” Foreman told San José Spotlight. “We’ve always had a heart to serve our city. We felt like this was a way we could possibly step up.”

The movement to build homes on church property started among faith leaders in San Diego in the late 2010s. San Jose officials started exploring options in 2021, as the local housing crisis drove thousands of people out of the area and pushed thousands of others into homelessness.

San Jose has roughly 6,340 homeless residents — with more than 4,400 being unsheltered — and has the fourth highest homeless population in the U.S. Older adults are a growing segment of the homeless population.

Several housing projects involving religious properties have materialized or broken ground, including a Catholic parish in East San Jose that transformed its convent into teacher housing in 2022.

“Any units we get helps, we have a huge crisis,” Davis told San José Spotlight. “This is really, really a great opportunity to utilize land that otherwise just sits there.”
For religious groups interested in using their property for housing, Davis advises considering vacant classrooms spaces.

“Find a good development partner. That’s probably your first step, and then we will work with them and work with (the religious groups) as well,” Davis said on the panel.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or Joyce_speaks on X.