Can churches fix America’s affordable-housing crunch?

The movement is the result of two trends colliding: a worsening housing crunch and the hollowing-out of places of worship. In the past decade house prices rose by 42%, mortgage rates nearly doubled and, as cities filled up, restrictive zoning laws prevented new building, leaving the country with a deficit of up to 7m homes of the sort that ordinary folk can afford. Meanwhile the share of Americans who attend church weekly fell from 31% to 24%, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, a pollster. Covid-19 left pews emptier and many churches had to close. YIGBY-proponents, like David Bowers of Enterprise Community Partners, a housing charity, reckon that provides an opportunity to repurpose the properties. “We call it radical common sense,” he says.