"Building the Beloved Community": Home Report of MHCH for August

Building the Beloved Community

August 2020

We are very grateful for  the generous support of MHCH donors during this critical period. During May-July we received over $3,000 plus a matching donation of $1,200. We also received two grants, totally $120,000, designated for our congregational land committee to support the 26 churches in our pipeline interested in building affordable housing on their property. This opens the possibility for building hundreds of units of affordable/supportive housing throughout LA County and setting an example for the rest of the state, and the nation!

Our housing justice efforts keep expanding and deepening during this crisis as we all sense the urgency not only of building more affordable housing, but also creating a beloved community. Our teams are bonding and working together even more closely as we learn and hone our leadership and communication skills. We are also grieving with Covid-related deaths. Alice, one of our team members, with our North Fair Oaks Empowerment Initiative, passed two weeks ago.  Alice brought the party with her.  She added fun to our team. She will be missed. This team is successfully working to “Beautify and not gentrify” this neglected business district of Pasadena, a victim of systemic racism.

Our elected officials respect our work and are even reaching out for our support. Over 120 people signed up, and 80 attended, our July webinar on “Racism and Housing” in which Councilmember John Kennedy shared his story about growing up African American in Pasadena.  When we arranged for him to meet with all the churches in his district, to support rezoning church land to allow for affordable housing to build, he told us he supported our church land committee work 1000%. He then called on us to support his efforts to get the city to build 1,000 affordable housing units for low and very low-income residents in the next 3-5 years. Of course, we enthusiastically said YES!

In addition to orchestrating all our Council members to meet with the churches in their districts in our effort to create a citywide zone change, we are also supporting SB 899 that would permit religious institutions throughout the state to build affordable housing on their land. This was heard today and passed out of one more important committee. Is a joy to see small African American Church, with excess land they long to see used for affordable housing, find their voice at the State legislature!

Our Homeless Housing Subcommittee just celebrated another win—58 units of supportive housing approved at the Salvation Army Hope Center. We are now preparing to advocate once again for 90  units family and supportive affordable housing at the Civic Center, with a vote in September.  Thanks to our advocacy, the City Council decided the best use for this land is affordable housing! Our Homeless housing team will do our upmost to make sure this happens… persisting onward after 2.5 years of research-action-and-refection—one our core values and method of doing our work.

Dr. King spoke not only of the “beloved community,” but also of the “beautiful struggle.” Sometimes the struggle doesn’t seem beautiful; it seems hard and frustrating. But we are grateful to supporters like you who enable us to do this challenging but deeply fulfilling work. As we see our city being transformed by the power of divine love, and how our work is benefiting our low-income and unhoused neighbors, we see other cities taking note and following our example. During a time when our nation seems increasingly and tragically divided, we thank God that we are bringing people together and helping to build the beloved community.

Anthony Manousos and Jill Shook, Co-founders of Making Housing and Community Happen (MHCH)