The single greatest resource for solving the affordable housing crisis in the United States is already present: hundreds of thousands of acres owned by faith communities. Permanent supportive housing for unhoused individuals; multifamily residential; senior housing; housing for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities; housing for refugees; mixed-income rentals; and first-time homeowner opportunities — all of these can be built on religious properties. What’s more, new housing can catalyze equitable development: affordable child care, accessible healthcare, green spaces, healthy food systems, plus jobs and enterprises owned by women and people of color. The question is, How to unlock religious properties for the flourishing of all people?

 

Sympara offers one hopeful answer: The Sacred/Civic Placemaking Project brings together six to eight congregations that want to build housing on their properties and want to learn together. The program focuses on discernment. In real estate development language, it's "pre-pre-development": all the steps needed to develop a vision, engage the congregation and neighbors, and prepare to work with a developer. 

 

Our current North Carolina cohort, in partnership with Wake Forest University School of Divinity, has six congregations and one nonprofit: Alamance Presbyterian Church, Greensboro; Dellabrook Presbyterian Church, Winston-Salem; First Baptist Church, Greensboro; Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, Greensboro; Legacy Bridge North Carolina, Winston-Salem; Lincoln Park Holiness Church, Raleigh; and Sweet Holy Spirit Church, Winston-Salem. The cohort experience is helping these groups discern their calling to housing, engage their neighbors and other community stakeholders in visioning, determine how to achieve both missional impact and financial sustainability, and prepare for the multiyear journey with developers, funders, and programmatic partners. Read about the current cohort's field trip to Charlotte here.

 

Curriculum

 

Each congregation convenes a cohort committee of six to eight leaders, equally divided between members and community stakeholders. The cohort experience includes: 

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• Full-day opening and closing events.

• Monthly peer-learning exchanges hosted by the participating congregations.

• Theological reflection on identity, community, hospitality, and stewardship.

• Introduction to historical and contemporary models of faith-rooted community development.

• Asset-mapping with neighbors to make visible resources, strengths, and opportunities.

• Site analysis and financial feasibility.

• Design sprints that lead to short-term experiments in property reuse.

• Field trips to learn from other congregations that have built affordable housing.

• Individual coaching on discernment and change management.

 

Criteria for Congregations

 

Sympara seeks to work with congregations that have:

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• Developable property — excess land and/or buildings that can be redesigned or reconstructed to make room for housing.

• Leadership capacity — passion, skill, and bandwidth in clergy and laity.

• Social capital — community relationships that can be leveraged.

• An expansive mission — a commitment to reimagine the nature of spiritual community with neighbors of other faith traditions or no religious affiliation.

• If necessary, judicatory support.

• Spiritual health — the disposition, practices, and willingness to embark upon a journey that will take at least three to five years beyond the cohort experience.
   

Future Cohorts

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We are recruiting for our next Triad cohort, which will launch in January 2026. An information session will be held September 23, 2025, from 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Register here. 

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We are also in conversations to launch cohorts in the Triangle, Austin and Philadelphia. Email Daniel Pryfogle to learn more.​​