About five years ago, Harvey Vaughn, the senior pastor at Bethel AME, the oldest Black church in San Diego, heard a radio report about rising homelessness in his city. He wondered if his congregation, which owned a roughly 7,000-square-foot lot around the corner, could help.
Today, the lot is a construction site for a new housing complex that will offer 25 one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors and veterans. It’s the first of what advocates hope will be many such projects in San Diego, led by a group called YIGBY, which stands for Yes in God’s Backyard, a spin on the pro-housing Yes in My Backyard movement.
In a country with a shortage of affordable homes and a surplus of religious institutions grappling with rising costs and declining memberships, developers are looking to partner with churches, temples, and synagogues to build new housing. And amid a thicket of […]
Craming a lot of people into a small space is NOT the way to go! Everyone needs a garden area to grow their own food because that is the only way to know your food is safe from pesticides and other contamination!
With the housing crisis, including problems for US Navy families, everyone having their own private garden is not the solution. There need to be community gardens like the ones that have been created thruout Los Angeles. The outcome has promoted better community relations. Neighbors to neighbors.