Supporting community-based development and resisting gentrification.

Kristin and I have lived in Northeast Minneapolis for over a decade, and in that time, like many of our neighbors, we’ve observed the ways that our neighborhood and many across Minneapolis have increasingly gentrified. Minneapolis is a great city, and folks want to live here, but unfortunately as neighborhoods are redeveloped many long-time neighbors and business owners, particularly BIPOC neighbors and neighbors experiencing poverty, are priced and pushed out of the communities they love.

This is not unique to Minneapolis, and many cities across the US are gentrifying, leaving me to wonder what role churches can and do play in this dynamic.

What is gentrification?

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, gentrification is a “profit-driven, race, and class change of a historically disinvested neighborhood…Gentrification occurs where land is cheap and the chance to make a profit is high due to the influx of wealthier wage earners willing to pay higher rents.” We’ve all encountered neighborhoods that were once considered poor or “undesirable” transformed into the new hot spot. Wealthier neighbors and businesses move in and displace long-term residents and vulnerable neighbors.

It’s important to note that gentrification and displacement are tied to histories of white flight, which churches have been a part of all along. In the 20^th century, as communities became more diverse, white community members fled to the suburbs, sometimes bringing the church with them and other times returning to the neighborhood only to worship. Now, as wealthier, and mostly white residents move back to the urban and city communities their grandparents or parents fled, they are once again fundamentally transforming the neighborhood.

In a Ministry Matters article from 2016, Dave Barnhart says that white churches who once saw the suburbs as the hot new spot to plant a church and innovate ministry, are now looking to the hip neighborhoods where young, often white, professionals are looking to move.[1] I can see this impulse in established majority culture churches as well. An energy and excitement about the ministry opportunity of all the young people moving into a community, while refusing to acknowledge the years of failing to see the resilience, imagination, and joy when a community was less white and less wealthy.

How ought the church respond?

When Jesus speaks about hospitality in the Gospels, he consistently calls on his followers to make space at the table for neighbors on the margins (Lk 14:7-14, Lk 16:19-31, Mt 25:31-45, Mt 26:6-13) and this call to be in relationship with neighbors impacted by systems and practices that cause harm, is still ours today. In our work to be the neighbor, and to practice our baptismal vocation in our communities, we have a responsibility to center the voices and stories of neighbors who are vulnerable to gentrification, to wrestle with our own church’s relationship to white flight and displacement, and to use our power, privilege, and resources to support our neighbors and neighborhoods to resist inequitable development.

I’m not an expert on gentrification, and I am learning as much as I can about this all-too-common reality, but I think I see a few opportunities for churches in gentrifying neighborhoods to practice the kind of accompaniment Jesus calls us to.

Those of us in churches can connect with, talk with, and build honest and trusting relationships with our neighbors. I’ll keep banging this drum until the stick breaks. We cannot love the neighbor if we do not know the neighbor. If we want to center and support the voices of our neighbors, we are going to have to hear and engage them on a regular basis. The first duty we owe our neighbors is to listen to them. In particular, find ways to connect with neighbors across difference and those most vulnerable to gentrification.
Do the work to disentangle white supremacy culture and non-profit culture from our church’s practice. There is no boiler-plate development plan, neighborhoods are living places with beautiful particularity. Gentrification is a racial and economic problem, and we must identify the anti-racist and intercultural work that is ours to do and that will free us up to better accompany our neighbors. Get curious and ask some questions. What are the particular development interests of long-time residents, BIPOC neighbors, and neighbors on the economic margins? How is racism and classism showing up in our community engagement practices and in our own decision making? When our faith communities make decisions about our property are we considering our neighbors and asking questions about how race and class will determine impact?
Find ways to educate ourselves, our neighbors, and our congregation about the impact of gentrification and its antidotes. What does equitable community development look like? What is the history of our community’s relationship to white flight? Who are the neighbors, stakeholders, and decision makers making good noise about the impact of gentrification in our community?
Lean into an asset-based approach. Instead of looking at gentrification as a problem for the church to solve or program around, consider thinking more about convening neighbors and stakeholders to dream about what the neighborhood would like to create together. Instead of only resisting gentrification, support, encourage, and invest in long-term residents and neighbors. The best defense is a good offense.
Find creative ways to leverage our congregation’s economic, political, and property resources to support neighbors’ ability to remain and flourish in the community. Shop local, pay neighbors for their gifts, offer our building as a community asset, and learn to be a bug in the ear of our local decision makers. A lot of the decisions about community development happen at the city and neighborhood level, and churches still have some social capital that can be leveraged to support and pass policies that encourage community input, affordable housing, and local business development.

These brief suggestions are not exhaustive (not even close), and every church’s response to gentrification in their community will look different, but I think these can be thoughtful starting points.

The call to love our neighbor

Gentrification is at work in many of our communities, and the church’s call to love the neighbor includes supporting and co-creating a just, equitable, and abundant community that is inhospitable to the practices and policies that lead to displacement and disenfranchisement. As Matthew’s Gospel says, when we accompany our neighbors, we accompany Christ.

I do believe that every church can be a neighbor that supports community-based development and contributes to the common good. Like most things, it will take our conviction, our attention, and our faithfulness. One of my goals this year is to learn as much as possible about community development and gentrification, especially as it shows up in in my own community. I’m inviting you to do the same. Let me know what you learn, and I’ll plan to share the same.

What are the signs of gentrification in your church’s neighborhood? What about your own neighborhood?
Who are the neighbors you know who might be vulnerable to displacement or disenfranchisement? Who are the neighbors you know who are knowledgeable about your community’s history and/or community development?
Where are there some opportunities for your faith community to listen deeply to your neighbors, and to learn about just and equitable community development?

Further Reading:

[1] Ministry Matters™ | Gentrification and the church

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash