TACKLing Issues
Opportunity Housing
Jesus said, “You will always have the poor among you.” This is often misunderstood to mean that poverty is an inevitable feature of any society. At a deeper level, Christ’s precept means that segregating the poor from the rest of society is wrong.
As people of faith, we are called to challenge the entrenched system of separatism and segregation of the poor in America.Gamaliel works for equitable and inclusionary housing opportunities for all. We affirm the principle of fair share housing, meaning that all communities within a metropolitan area should include their fair share of the region’s low income housing and affordable housing.
Victories
Empower Hampton Roads (EHR) won non-mandatory “opportunity housing” or “inclusionary housing” policy in Virginia Beach. They also won a state bill improving previous policy giving permission for local inclusionary housing ordinances. The new Bill, passed in 2007, protects and expands the right of communities to pass “opportunity housing”/workforce housing.
BRIDGE won a Baltimore City inclusionary housing ordinance that expands opportunity housing in more affluent areas of the city.
Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) waged a successful multi year campaign to protect and strengthen a Missouri state policy that awards credits on the state income tax to families and developers who invest in renovation or construction of new housing in the city of St Louis. This resulted in the construction of thousands of housing units in St Louis, which has in turn resulted in the cities first population increase and tax base increase in four decades.