Houston is turning to God’s backyard for affordable housing development.
Trinity East Village Senior Apartments, a four-story, 90-unit development for local seniors, will start construction this April on land owned by Trinity East United Methodist Church in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, according to a filing with the state.
The project is expected to finish in October 2027. All units will be one-bedroom apartments for people older than 62, according to a Houston Housing Authority memo.
The NHP Foundation and a local community development corporation, the Trinity East Village CDC, are collaborating on the development.
Construction is expected to cost about $33 million, which will be financed via low income housing tax credits. The City of Houston is estimated to contribute $4 million of soft financing, and the Houston Housing Authority plans to contribute $2 million.
In a trend dubbed Yes in God’s Backyard, or YIGBY, developers have been looking into land owned by religious organizations, which are among the biggest landowners in the country.
California passed a law two years ago that streamlined affordable housing development on land owned by religious organizations and nonprofit colleges, unlocking an estimated 171,000 acres for development.
Similar proposals were filed in the last Texas legislature, but they didn’t progress. Opponents such as The Real Estate Council argued that YIGBY projects need affordable unit requirements, which the bill did not include.
Trinity East Village will primarily serve outgoing residents of Cuney Homes, a 90-year-old public housing complex that the Houston Housing Authority plans to redevelop.
Built in the 1930s, Cuney is Houston’s oldest public housing development. Cuney residents were told earlier this year to prepare to move out, the Houston Chronicle reported. Two-thirds of Trinity East Village’s 90 units will be reserved for them.
Construction of an affordable housing project is underway at the site of a former church in South Dallas, and a congregation in Austin is developing a mixed-use project anchored by a new church.
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