COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia Council Member Tina Herbert will hold an information session on Wednesday morning, October 25, to discuss housing development options for churches and nonprofits with vacant land as a way to encourage housing involvement within the city.
Herbert says the idea came to her after she was elected to council.
"Once I got into office, I had several churches who came to me and said, "I have this property, and the city can develop on it," but that's not really what we do," Herbert said.
After a couple of similar interactions, Herbert said she realized something. "We also have plenty of churches with rental property but maybe don't know how to get into the rental property business."
Herbert's information session, "Let's build together," will feature the city's community and economic development representative, affordable housing task force members and local developers to inform organizations about the development process.
"A lot of people have the assets and the property, but they haven't quite figured out their strategy of what to do with it," Herbert explained.
One example of a church that has successfully completed a multi-housing development is Second Nazareth Baptist Church.
Church pastor Johnny Ray Noble, who has seen the housing development process go from conception to reality, will be in attendance on Wednesday.
"I am going tomorrow to try to figure out how to level more partnerships as we have more land available that we need to develop," Noble said. "That would be good for the church, but even better for the community."
Building relationships and informing those interested by giving his advice will be Pastor Noble's main priority.
"Always shop around," Nobles said. "One developer may have one style or something but another developer may have something else that they can offer you that's more of a win for you. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure that the community, the partner, and the church understand what each others' responsibilities are."
Obtaining that information, according to Noble, will successfully bring new life to the church while also uplifting the community as a whole by seeing families benefit from the residential space.
The "Let's Build Together" information session takes place Wednesday morning at 8:30 am at the Busby Street Community Center. Breakfast will be served for those attending.
