Church: Emory Fellowship
Neighborhood: Brightwood, D.C.
Development: 99 units of affordable housing along with a food pantry, cafe, job training programs, and a small business development space

Pastor Joe Daniels of Emory Fellowship first had the vision for housing development in 1995, when he looked across the street from his church and envisioned an entire block of new homes for his most vulnerable neighbors. The church began serving food to people experiencing homelessness, then began offering temporary emergency shelter. Slowly that shelter expanded to 30 day transitional housing, then 60, then 90. Soon, Pastor Daniels and his congregants realized permanent solutions were needed and they began to work to construct new, permanent, affordable housing. Because Emory’s congregants had relationships with these homeless families, they were able to recognize the serious need for housing in the community, and they were on board with embarking on a larger development project.

Emory Fellowship partnered with a mission-driven developer The Community Builders to design and develop a 99-unit apartment building using land surrounding the historic church. They were also able to renovate their church in the process.

As a co-developer, Emory was able to retain both influence over the project and ownership of the land and building. They were able to influence the vision of the project, which includes a locally owned cafe that provides job training for returning citizens, a food pantry, an immigration clinic, and space for future enterprises to grow and develop, in addition to the almost 100 units of affordable housing.

There were challenges: the denominational approval process, historic preservation, and community opposition. But each step of the way, the church bathed the process in prayer and partners came along to help clear hurdles.

This new community epitomizes the concept of justice housing. It officially opened in March of 2019.