Church: Mount Lebanon Baptist
Neighborhood: Truxton Circle, D.C.
Development: 82 units for seniors age 55+ with large community space
Pastor Lionel Edmonds of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church has always believed the church should provide for its immediate community and serve as an anchor institution in its neighborhood. However, when he looked around his church’s neighborhood of Truxton Circle, he realized the church was full of people who couldn’t afford to live in the neighborhood anymore. His solution: increase the stock of affordable housing to members of the community.
Mt. Lebanon had no space on their property to build anything. But, soon after Pastor Edmonds first had the idea to get involved in housing, an old school building near the church went up for sale. Pastor Edmonds realized bidding developers were much more likely to get approval to develop if they had community buy-in, so he started talking to those bidding to hear what their plans were for the space. He built a relationship with Mission First, a non-profit developer with experience in affordable housing development, and together they successfully bid on the property.
Mt. Lebanon entered into a joint venture partnership with Mission First. Together, they created House of Lebanon, which opened in 2015, providing 82 new homes for low-income seniors. As an active partner in the development process, Mt Lebanon CDC was able to “keep an eye” on the developer and make sure the vision didn’t get lost. Since this project, Mission First and Mt Lebanon have been exploring other development projects for partnership.
