Housing and the Church

Chiirch itivolveriietit in irrbati community renewal is both widespread atid iitiderrecognized. Conimiuiity development corporations (CDCs), tlie basic itistitiitiotial iitiit irivolved in urban coniniunity renewal, lime grown tetlfold in niiniber sitice their creation in tlie 1960s. Today, niatiy churches arefonning CDCs to iniprove tlie lives ofcoiigregatits atid res-ideiits iti the cottirtiiinity. This article exailtities eight “chi~rch birthed” CDCs tlint are nctively etigaged in the developmetit of Iiottsirig for low- arid r)ioderate-inconie itidividiials atid familics in Los Atigeles Coiinty, California. Churches play important roles in community organizing and development. Religious organizations-congregations, parishes, synagogues and religious orders-lie at the center of many citizens ’ organizations. Religious organiza-tions provide the people, the values, and the resources necessary to organize the community (Chambers, 1978). Just as the church took a leading role in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the church is a leading institution in community renewal (mid 1960s through late 1970s) and in community devel-opment (1980s to present). As the federal government, and, to some extent, state governments have sought to decentralize the control of community pro-grams and development, and have decreased funding for the same, churches have taken more of the responsibility for the development of their own com-munities (Zalent and Carlson, 1986). Churches that previously have not been active in the community are beginning to provide social services (for example, establishing food pantries or collecting clothing for the needy). Churches that have already been provid-ing social services have begun to think more developmentally, that is, moving beyond giving a person a fish to teaching that person how to catch his or her own fish. Thus, churches tend to move along a community development con-tinuum over time, beginning with providing social services (giving to th