U.S. News

2645 readers

59 users here now

News about and pertaining to the United States and its people.

Please read what's functionally the mission statement before posting for the first time. We have a narrower definition of news than you might be accustomed to.

Guidelines for submissions:

Post the original source of information as the link.
If there is any Nazi imagery in the linked story, mark your post NSFW.
Advocating violence is not allowed on Beehaw in general.
If there is a paywall, provide an archive link in the body.
Post using the original headline; edits for clarity (as in providing crucial info a clickbait hed omits) are fine.
Social media is not a news source.

For World News, see the News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

Powderhorn@beehaw.org

Putting the ‘lord’ in ‘landlord’: US churches step up to build housing amid shortage (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 18 hours ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A parcel of land behind Little Rock AME Zion church in Charlotte, North Carolina, remained mostly empty for nearly a decade before the congregation approached the city with a proposal.

The land sat unused while housing prices climbed and locals were being pushed out of their neighborhoods. So, the church proposed in 2018, why not develop housing there?

About six years after the project was approved, Varick on 7th opened 105 apartment units, half of which were designated as affordable housing.

“Little Rock has been a staple in this community for years addressing needs, not just affordable housing,” said the Rev Dr Derrill Blue, a pastor at Little Rock. “So we knew, because we had a longstanding relationship in this First Ward community, that this could be the next avenue we could take to address a community need.”

Little Rock is just one of several faith-based institutions in the US that are developing their underutilized land at a time when the country faces a deep housing shortage.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

In 2016, the Christian Cultural Center partnered with real estate group the Gotham Organization to reimagine the megachurch’s massive 10-acre parking lot.

A 10-acre parking lot. Wow.

This leads me to wonder where the world's largest parking lot is.

[–] rainwall@piefed.social 3 points 13 hours ago

Amusment parks or stadiums will likely get you there.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I'm inclined to say it has to be in Texas, but it's likely in China.

[–] Smoke@beehaw.org 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

China has pretty good public transit. Although its cities have elevated highways and wide roads, they also seem to almost get a subway system automatically at a certain size (they apparently standardised one station design across the country, making construction simpler and faster, and have good geology for tunnels) and even smaller cities and towns have decent buses.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago

I mean, everywhere has better transit than the U.S.

[–] UnpledgedCatnapTipper@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It's in Canada apparently, at this mall! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago

It's so weird to me, more than a quarter-century since living in Vic, that I was like "oh, we're talking about Alberta."