Bethel AME celebrates groundbreaking of new housing development in South LA
LOGOS Faith Development LLC celebrated the groundbreaking of the Permanent Supportive Housing project at Bethel AME Church. Bethel AME hosted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, funders, build partners, service provides, and the greater community.
“Everybody’s been recognized for their work, LOGOS and the financing partners, our service providers, but I want to take a second to talk about the AME Church and Bethel AME, which has been an anchor here on Western Avenue all my life and even prior to that. And it isn’t just a building, it isn’t just a church, or a place where people go – It’s a place where every single time there’s a big fight, or a big struggle, or a big problem to be solved in the Community, Bethel is the first to raise their hand.”
- Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, whose district the project is located.
LOGOS initially partnered with Bethel AME to help the church determine the best way to use its real estate to positively impact the South Los Angeles community. LOGOS then brought together a build partner and their funder to move the project forward.
“Thank you to Logos Faith Development for bringing us together. Your dedication to serve our community, and to serve our unhoused neighbors, is unmatched.”
- LA Mayor Eric Garcetti
Bethel AME is one of dozens of churches that have met with LOGOS seeking ways to create revenue at a time when many houses of worship are facing declining resources in communities that need more services and more housing.
“Throughout my lengthy experience running community development corporations and projects in challenging conditions, I can say with certainty that each potential project requires a fresh look and that a model that may work for site a, may not work for site b. Landowners, especially faith-based landowners, owe it to themselves to take a look at different options.”
- Chris Jordan, Sr. Business Development Associate, Logos Faith Development.
As word spread of this movement, more and more churches approached LOGOS. The team discovered that there is no one size fit all, and that different build and financing options may be better suited to different churches. Typically, affordable housing projects are built on sites that are zoned to allow 50+ units. For churches whose zoning wouldn’t allow large builds, LOGOS created a different model: a new, low-density housing build, feasible with today’s rising construction costs, targeting local communities and members of the church congregation. Today, LOGOS has multiple development models, from single-family townhomes to large apartment buildings LOGOS continues creating new, custom solutions that attend to the nuances of each church site, and to each church’s vision, goals, and needs.