Faith Groups Consider Donating Land to Ease Triangle Housing Shortage
Faith leaders from across the Triangle attended a Duke Community Affairs session that walked through legal and financial steps to turn excess church land into affordable housing. The effort matters for Wake County because new local supply could relieve pressure on workers priced out of the region and help stabilize neighborhoods across the Triangle.
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Durham congregations and housing advocates gathered at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church for a session hosted by Duke Community Affairs that laid out practical pathways for faith communities to contribute land and other assets to affordable housing development. Representatives from Durham City Planning and DHIC, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, joined the discussion to explain regulatory requirements and funding options.
Speakers emphasized that development is a long process and used a recent local example to illustrate the timeline. Bryan Place, a 16 unit affordable development, entered review in 2021 and began construction in 2025. That four year window underscores the need for early planning, careful partnership agreements, and patient financing strategies for congregations that may be considering donating land or forming partnerships.
The session reviewed commonly used funding tools such as the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and Community Land Trusts, and it placed local efforts within broader policy conversations at the national level, including the Faith in Housing Act. Panelists described a menu of strategies faith groups are exploring, from donating or leasing property to supporting accessory dwelling units and partnering with mission driven developers to deliver permanently affordable units.
DHIC’s Kayla Rosenberg Strampe addressed stigma around the phrase affordable housing and framed demand in human terms. She noted that many people who support such projects are neighbors and community workers including teachers, firefighters and childcare providers who are being priced out of the market. That local demand is salient for Wake County where the regional housing market in the Triangle ties together labor supply, commuting patterns and school enrollment.
For Wake County residents and congregations, the session offered concrete implications. Faith properties can be an untapped source of comparatively low cost land for modest sized developments that serve essential workers and long term residents. Because approvals and financing take time, local leaders are urged to begin feasibility work now if they seek to influence supply within the next several years. Partnerships with experienced developers and clarity about public funding tools were identified as critical to success.
The discussion also points to policy levers county and municipal governments can use to accelerate projects, including clearer permitting timelines, technical assistance for faith groups, and linkage to nonprofit developers. As faith communities in the Triangle consider converting land into housing, the Bryan Place example shows that the process can produce tangible units, while the participation of planners and developers highlights pathways to turn local assets into housing that helps families remain in their communities.
