Help us map faith-housing partnerships across Iowa

Faith organizations play a key role in meeting basic needs of local people. As the "Yes In God's Back Yard," or YIGBY, movement grows, more congregations and faith-based institutions are exploring how their land, buildings, volunteers, and mission can support local housing solutions. Some are helping build new homes, while others are partnering with housing providers, offering land, or supporting residents in other practical ways.

The Polk County Housing Trust Fund is building a local inventory of faith-housing partnerships and inviting community members, faith leaders, housing partners, and neighbors to help us identify examples across Iowa.

In April, we released Housing Sites of Opportunity, a report that explores several development scenarios for adding needed housing, including opportunities on land owned by faith institutions.

The report includes development considerations and approximate cost estimates to help local houses of worship understand what may be possible if they explore adding housing on their property.

We are also reaching out to local communities and faith organizations to learn more about housing partnerships that are already happening. The Trust Fund is inviting community members to share information about faith-housing partnerships anywhere in Iowa through our online form.

By sharing these examples, you can help us better understand what is already working, identify patterns across communities, and connect more people to ideas that could be adapted locally.

The form asks for basic information about the housing project, such as the faith organization involved, the location, the type of housing or support provided, and any details that help us understand the project. You do not need to have every detail before submitting. If you know the name of a project, organization, or location, we can use that as a starting point for follow-up.

A team at Rutgers University recently published a national database of faith-based housing developments to provide insight on this growing trend. Submissions that meet the criteria below may also be sent to the Rutgers team for consideration in their national database.

• Members of a congregation or judicatory body helped develop or advance the project.

• Land was leased, sold, or donated by a house of worship or judicatory body.

• The national databse focuses on properties that have (or once had) a house of worship on site, but you can send us projects where this was not the case, too.

• The project must serve a below-market-rate or affordable housing purpose.

• The project is complete; past completed projects dating back to 2015 are welcome.

If you’re not sure a project matches the criteria, we welcome you to submit it anyway.

If you have questions or would prefer to share information by email, please contact info@pchtf.org.