For the last 3.5+ years Mountain View United Church has been working on a plan on how to use our 2-acre vacant lot next to the church to provide affordable for working families. As we all know, there is a critical shortage of affordable housing across the entire metro area. Believing that this land is a gift given to us by God to be used in love of our neighbor and not for our own profit we embrace the vision of the prophets, a vision of Shalom, where "everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid." A vision of where all have homes. A vision further affirmed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which declares housing as a human right, like the right to food and clothing.
In the fall of 2017 we were the first faith community to begin working with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado's "Congregation Land Campaign" (CLC). The CLC was formed to work with congregations and nonprofits to provide technical assistance to utilize the over 5,000 acres of undeveloped congregation land to address the affordable housing crisis.
After 18 months of visioning, investigating numerous possibilities, and designing several different options we entered into a formal partnership with Habitat For Humanity Metro Denver to construct 20 owner-occupied affordable homes for working families, many of whom are essential workers. on the property. See the attached info sheet. Please visit our web site at https://mountainviewcommunityhomes.com to see the details of the proposed development.
We are now in the midst of gaining approval from the Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission for the rezoning of the land to make this vision a reality. That will be followed by approval from the City Council, we hope, sometime in September.
As both we and Habitat expected there is strong opposition from the surrounding neighbors that we are working through. To that end, we are asking faith communities, faith leaders, and individuals who share our vision of providing affordable home as fulfilling the command to love our neighbor to lend their support to the project by writing letters of endorsement / support to Aurora City Council. I am happy to provide instructions on how to craft the letters and who to send them to, sample letter templates, and talking points. I can be contacted at pastorwaynelaws@comcast.net. In addition, we will be sending out a call in late Aug/early Sep for people of faith to testify in support of the project at the City Council hearing.
Scripture teaches us that it takes community to build and nurture Shalom and we invite our kin folk in the faith community to join us in our vision to take what is now a weed covered vacant lot and transform it into place of God's vision for society.
In Peace,
Rev. Wayne A. Laws
(He/His/Him)
Minister of Social Justice & Mission
Mountain View United Church