7 Investigates: Faith groups seek solutions to the housing crisis

The purpose of Harvard Street Presbyterian Church has consistently extended beyond its pews Partly because we are such an immigrant-based congregation there s been a strong emphasis on caring for our neighbors and people in need stated Bryan Takasaki a ruling elder at the church The Natick property is home to a area garden and food bank At one point the church s Sunday school rooms were even transformed into bedrooms that migrant families called home During that summer the summer of we perhaps hosted about or families for short periods of time Takasaki disclosed The weeks turned into months for various families The church installed a portable shower enhanced their kitchen and lined the empty rooms with bunk beds We helped them to find apartments we helped them to find jobs things like that One of the things that became really apparent was that finding housing was a really major major trouble Takasaki explained He commented that the experience opened the church s eyes to just how severe the housing problem had become in the state It s a obstacle that Harvard Street Presbyterian wants to help fix For the past years the church has tried to build affordable housing on its five acres of land It is complicated for a small congregation to stick with it Takasaki explained Any kind of resistance from neighbors who think it s a great idea but not here all those kind of things makes it very challenging The congregation has even had progress plans drawn up that revealed there was space for up to units However Takasaki mentioned those plans never came to life due to various obstacles over the years Harvard Street Presbyterian is just one of the congregations that has tools that could aid in Massachusetts housing situation We are seeing lots of vacant properties We are seeing religious communities that are not growing as they used to mentioned Katie Everett the executive director of the Lynch Foundation Massachusetts isn t getting any bigger We have the existing footprint so what within that footprint can we do The foundation in recent months commissioned a evaluation that located religious organizations across the state have more than acres of land that could be use to build up to units of housing The nonprofit is advocating for state lawmakers to pass a bill that would reduce zoning walls that often make it costly and time-consuming for religious organizations to develop housing For a multitude of of these properties in order to develop in a state like Massachusetts every city and town has different zoning requirements so the predevelopment costs can cost millions of dollars and take several years so it is very prohibitive Everett explained The Yes in God s Back Yard YIGBY bill would allow religious groups to build multifamily housing on their property without being blocked by local zoning boards Similar bills have passed in California Washington and Maryland Much of those faith-based communities were beacons of hope and brought communities together so to be able to utilize those properties that are very much aligned with the core values of a multitude of of these faith communities it to us seemed like a very natural and practical approach to our lack of housing Everett stated Beyond the benefit of adding supply to the housing sphere the investigation also predicted the developments would generate million in annual tax revenue To us who wins is the state To us who wins are the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and it helps solve a big challenge Everett commented Using religious land for housing is already happening but advocates say this bill and other measures could decrease delays and reduce costs One of the projects already underway is in East Cambridge We re excited to create housing here so that it s not just the building sitting here dilapidated and not being used stated Vitalia Shklovsky a senior project manager with Preservation of Affordable Housing POAH POAH is a nonprofit that is working to transform buildings formerly used by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish For years the church s rectory convent and school sat mostly unused POAH broke ground this summer on affordable units There is a desperate need for more housing across the Commonwealth and the Boston area Shklovsky explained Even though there are just units total I think it will make a big difference The improvement is within an area that aims to make affordable housing easier to build and it still took around four years for the project to break ground That s why certain affordable housing advocates are pushing to loosen the zoning restrictions in other areas of the state The challenge of housing is so extreme that drastic measures need to be taken to really address that Takasaki mentioned