SILVER SPRING (May 2, 2024) – Joined by members of the faith community, Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), Montgomery County, and Truist today announced the launch of Enterprise’s Faith-Based Development Initiative in Montgomery County, where it will partner with faith-based organizations to convert their unused land into affordable homes.
The program, which will help up to 7 houses of worship as they develop new housing on their vacant property, is supported by $385,000 in funding from Montgomery County and $200,000 from the Truist Charitable Fund to support new FBDI cohorts in both Montgomery County and Baltimore County. The program was launched with a “clarion call” at Mount Jezreel Baptist Church, a local church in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Faith-based organizations across the country own tens of thousands of acres of vacant or underutilized land. As costs for land and housing remain high, Enterprise’s initiative enables them to serve their communities in new ways by creating affordable housing. The initiative will provide specialized training, technical assistance and funding over two years to participating houses of worship as they plan new developments on their land.
“This is radical common sense. When you have mission-aligned institutions with so much underutilized land in just about every community, our faith-based development initiative is really connecting opportunity with need,” said Rev. David Bowers, vice president of Enterprise’s Mid-Atlantic Market and senior advisor for the Faith-Based Development Initiative. “Thanks to Montgomery County and Truist for supporting our initiative to help houses of worship create safe and affordable places to live.”
“Faith leaders and housing organizations share a mission to strengthen communities. For nearly two decades, we’ve worked together to ease our ongoing affordability crisis, one home at a time,” said Rev. Joseph K. Williams, Sr., senior program director and manager of the FBDI program in Enterprise’s Mid-Atlantic market. “We’re thrilled to bring the program to Montgomery County, and we invite houses of worship interested in developing affordable housing to apply to join our cohort.”
“My administration is committed to finding innovative ways to make Montgomery County an affordable place to live for all. The launch of Enterprise’s Faith-Based Development Initiative is a public-private partnership cohort model, supporting houses of worship as they help us address one of the largest issues our county faces,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “The faith community has consistently stepped up to find numerous ways to support their neighbors, such as food distributions, providing medical services, environmental preservation, and serving newcomers. This partnership with Enterprise has the power to not only transform unused land but the capability to transform the lives of many in our community. Supporting houses of worship in their efforts to develop housing will allow us to work together to address the affordable housing crisis.”
“Our purpose at Truist is to inspire and build better lives and communities,” said Bernita Bailey, Truist market president for suburban Maryland. “Our support of Enterprise Community Partners helps us live our purpose and we’re proud of the work they have done to help faith-based organizations convert land into affordable housing.”
Since its inception in 2006, the Faith-Based Development Initiative has helped create or preserve more than 1,500 affordable homes and one community-based health clinic in the Mid-Atlantic region, with thousands of homes now in the development pipeline. Enterprise is working with more than 100 houses of worship in Washington D.C.; Baltimore City, Md.; Prince George’s County, Md.; Atlanta, South Florida, New York, and Seattle with a projected pipeline of 8,500 affordable homes.
Faith-based organizations participating in the program will gain access to:
- Funding: Support for market study/feasibility analysis and pre-development activities
- Training: Virtual and in-person trainings to help participants understand the ins and outs of the development process
- Technical assistance and tools: One-on-one technical assistance provided by development consultants and Enterprise staff to help overcome obstacles during the development process, as well as access to informational tools and resources
- Access to industry professionals: Information on development professionals, such as architects, real estate lawyers, developers and development consultants
- Peer-to-peer learning: Geographic cohorts of faith-based organizations will network and learn from one another as they go through the process of housing development, and a national summit will bring faith leaders from across the country together to advance program learnings and celebrate successes
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About Enterprise Community Partners
Enterprise is a national nonprofit that exists to make a good home possible for the millions of families without one. We support community development organizations on the ground, aggregate and invest capital for impact, advance housing policy at every level of government, and build and manage communities ourselves. Since 1982, we have invested $72 billion and created 1 million homes across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands – all to make home and community places of pride, power and belonging. Join us at enterprisecommunity.org.
Contact:
Diane Cho, dcho@enterprisecommunity.org