{"id":44670,"date":"2025-08-28T09:13:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=44670"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:13:36","slug":"county-looks-to-bring-faith-based-organizations-into-affordable-housing-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=44670","title":{"rendered":"County looks to bring faith-based organizations into affordable housing discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reverend Sarah Strosahl-Kagi from Royersford Baptist Church (left) and Reverend Dr. Mary Ann Mertz from St. Christopher\u2019s Episcopal Church in Oxford were part of the panel discussion at the 4th Annual Summit on Affordable Housing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chester County Commissioners Josh Maxwell, Marian Moskowitz, and Eric Roe recently partnered with Allies for Housing in Chester County to host the 4th Annual Summit on Affordable Housing. The event brought together elected officials, municipal leaders, faith-based organizations, housing advocates, and individuals with lived experience to advance the conversation on housing solutions.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme, \u201cYIGBY: Yes In God\u2019s Back Yard,\u201d highlighted the pivotal role that communities of faith are playing in addressing Chester County\u2019s housing needs. YIGBY is an emerging model that fosters partnerships among faith-based organizations, municipalities, and elected officials to reimagine and repurpose underutilized religious properties for affordable housing development.<\/p>\n

Chester County Commissioners\u2019 Chair Josh Maxwell remarked, \u201cAddressing our affordable housing challenges can feel daunting, but when more people get involved, solutions emerge. For example, if each of the county\u2019s 73 municipalities committed to creating just four affordable housing units annually, we would add nearly 300 units every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need strong partnerships\u2014among municipalities, faith-based organizations, developers, and investors\u2014to generate creative solutions. This summit has been a catalyst for those collaborations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summit featured a panel discussion that included the Reverend Sarah Strosahl-Kagi from Royersford Baptist Church, Reverend Dr. Mary Ann Mertz from St. Christopher\u2019s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Kyla Weisman Bayer from Mission First Housing Group, and Tom Leonard from Habitat for Humanity of Chester County.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2022, Allies for Housing is dedicated to expanding housing inventory through networking, education, and advocacy. \u201cOne of our primary goals is to increase the number of rental units available to households earning 60 percent or less of the Area Median Income, equivalent to $50,000 for an individual or $71,640 for a family of four in Chester County,\u201d said Keith Burress of Allies for Housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis challenge extends far beyond Chester County\u2014it\u2019s recognized as a critical national issue,\u201d Burress added. \u201cBy developing new models and forging broader partnerships, we can create more affordable, safe housing options and move closer to that goal of housing\u00a0for all our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chester County Commissioners Josh Maxwell, Marian Moskowitz, and Eric Roe recently partnered with Allies for Housing in Chester County to host the 4th Annual Summit on Affordable Housing. The event brought together elected officials, municipal leaders, faith-based organizations, housing advocates, and individuals with lived experience to advance the conversation on housing solutions. This year\u2019s theme, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12219,15,15251,6518],"class_list":["post-44670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-affordable-housing","tag-chester-county","tag-faith-based-organizations","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44671,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44670\/revisions\/44671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}