Buffalo churches lead multifamily development efforts in improverished neighborhoods

Business Journals

24-04-2025

Church leaders in Buffalo are putting their beliefs into action by spearheading affordable housing projects.
Story Highlights Buffalo-area churches are building affordable housing to meet community needs.
The term "Yes in God's Backyard," or YIGBY, describes church-driven housing development.
In Buffalo, faith-based development initiatives are primarily being driven by Black churches.
When some local churches felt their neighborhoods were being ignored by developers, they stepped in to fill the gap.
"I literally had seniors that old homes that were so drafty they couldn't keep them warm," said Pastor Dwayne Jones of Mount Aaron Missionary Baptist Church. "I had middle-aged people, what you'd call the working poor, who had just enough to get them to the next pay week, and they were living in deplorable housing."
Mount Aaron is one of several Buffalo-area churches that have built apartments and homes to meet the needs of their congregations and communities.
"God has not just given us a church and the four walls that we're in; he's also put us into a community to affect change," said Dwayne Gillison, pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church. It's a quote his father, the late Rev. Doctor William Gillison, often used.
The church's development affiliate, Mt. Olive Development Corp., built the 10-unit Trinity One apartment building on East Delevan Avenue a few years ago.
It followed that project with Mt. Olive Senior Manor, a 65-unit building developed in partnership with Senior Inc.
Gillison said more than 180 applications came in for the manor when it opened, demonstrating the need for affordable, quality housing in Buffalo.
True Bethel Baptist Church has been buying land and building homes and apartments for more than a decade, typically in partnership with Belmont Housing Resources for Western New York.
"It's hard to sit in the middle of desolation on poverty and not try to improve it," said Janice McKinnie, executive director of True Community Development Corp., True Bethel's development arm.
Nationally, some have coined the term "Yes in God's Backyard," or YIGBY, to describe church-driven housing development — a tongue-in-cheek description riffing on both the anti-development Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) and pro-development Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) mindsets.
Some New York state legislators have proposed a Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act, which would eliminate most municipal zoning restrictions on residential projects on church-owned land, presenting churches as possible partners in the state's efforts to increase its housing stock.
State Sen. and Buffalo mayoral candidate Sean Ryan has co-sponsored the bill.
Buffalo has generally been welcoming of church-led development, McKinnie said. Many church-led projects have involved acquiring vacant city-owned properties.
In Buffalo, faith-based development initiatives are primarily being driven by Black churches.
Jones said that's because many of the city's Black churches are on the East Side, where vacant land is plentiful, affordable housing is needed and private development projects are scarce. Churches stepped in to solve the problems they were seeing in their community.
"Investors were walking past our neighborhood," he said. "They weren't coming in to say, 'We're going to build housing.' "
Jones and Mount Aaron led development of the senior housing building Mt. Aaron Manor and Mount Aaron Village, which has 59 apartments and 17 townhomes. Jones is planning to build single-family homes targeting first-time homeowners on Grey Street.
"Everything I'm doing is like putting a puzzle together," he said. "I don't want them to stay in affordable housing. I want them to be able to have their own homes, so I'm putting the pieces together so that it makes sense."
True Community Development Corporation's projects, developed with Belmont, include True Bethel Townhomes and True Bethel Estates, both on East Ferry Street. Most recently it branched out beyond Buffalo to finish True Bethel Commons in 2023, a 39-unit affordable housing community in the former Sacred Heart school in Niagara Falls.
"The need is just as great in Niagara Falls, if not a little bit greater," McKinnnie said.
Other church-driven projects locally include:
St. John Baptist Church is part of a development team that recently renovated the McCarley Gardens campus on Michigan Avenue, with plans for additional multifamily development in the area.
is part of a development team that recently renovated the McCarley Gardens campus on Michigan Avenue, with plans for additional multifamily development in the area. Elim Christian Fellowship and Belmont have already completed 30 townhome units on Holden Street and now is planning to build 30 single-family homes on Chalmers Avenue.
and have already completed 30 townhome units on Holden Street and now is planning to build 30 single-family homes on Chalmers Avenue. United House of Prayer for All People has proposed building 11 townhomes on Watson and Adams streets.
has proposed building 11 townhomes on Watson and Adams streets. Thankful Community Development Corp., an affiliate of Thankful Missionary Baptist Church, is planning Thankful Gardens, a 20-unit project on Sumner Place.
Since Covid-19, construction costs have skyrocketed and financing for many projects has dried up. And though many churches see building housing as part of their ministry, the dollars and cents need to work out.
"Whether you're a faith-based developer or whether you're a private developer, it's business," McKinnie said. "It's a development project."
Jones said his next project likely will use prefabricated homes to minimize costs.
Mt. Olive is looking to build owner-occupied townhomes on vacant land near the church.
"We've been in touch with some banks and we're trying to be creative," Gillison said.
McKinnie said True Bethel won't stop its development efforts, but its next projects may be smaller scale.
"Crunching numbers has become a challenge," she said. "I think it's just going to take a little more diligence and patience, because things have gone up so much."