A historic Black church wants to combat gentrification on Tacoma’s Hilltop. Here’s how

This is no passing fancy, or a bandwagon Pastor Gregory Christopher recently jumped onto. For the leader of Shiloh Baptist on Hilltop, one of the city’s preeminent Black churches, it’s a calling that dates back decades — all the way to the Rev. Earnest S. Brazill, the renowned Tacoma religious figure who guided Shiloh Baptist for 44 years until his retirement in 2000.

While the dire need for affordable housing in Tacoma might feel like a relatively new crisis to some, for Shiloh Baptist and the church’s congregation, it’s one they’ve known all too well for far too long, Christopher said.

On Hilltop, rising housing costs and other factors have been displacing residents in the historically Black neighborhood since long before gentrification became a buzzword, he noted. That’s what made Sunday so exciting.

Over barbecue and a welcome break from the mid-summer heat, churchgoers, elected officials and members of the larger Tacoma faith community gathered to celebrate a development that will one day transform several parcels Shiloh Baptist owns along the block of South I Street.

In the process, Christopher said he hopes the project — which is designed to include 60 affordable units, half of them planned as permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness — will transform lives and become a model for other churches in the area to replicate.

Christopher, who found redemption in the church after personal struggles with substance abuse and homelessness, firmly believes local churches can be part of the solution to Tacoma’s affordable housing crisis.

Now the big question is: How many other churches will follow Shiloh Baptist’s lead?

“Church, for me, it’s not about the jumping and shouting. I mean, that’s good. But if that’s all we’re doing, we’re out of the will of God,” Christopher, who also serves as president of the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, told The News Tribune.

“We should be out trying to make other people’s lives better — the brokenhearted, the destitute, the hungry, those that are naked,” Christopher continued.

“We are supposed to be ministering and trying to help people get to a better place in life, and that’s what this project is about.”

At Shiloh Baptist, Christopher’s vision, which will be called New Life Housing, has begun to take shape.

The church has long owned several residential homes in the area — a few across the street and a couple more at the end of the block. With the assistance of Tacoma Housing Authority, the plan is to use local, state and federal funding sources along with tax credits and traditional financing to construct a dense housing project.

Shiloh Baptist treasurer Faye Alexander said three quarters of the funding has been secured so far for the roughly $28 million project.

THA spokesperson Nick Tolley said the agency has helped write applications for the funding, and the hope is to “close next summer on the financing and start construction soon thereafter.”

Traditionally, Shiloh Baptist has used the homes as transitional housing and as low-income rentals for those who need it, Christopher said.

Turning those properties into 60 units of affordable housing in a time when Hilltop is in desperate need makes too much sense to ignore, he said.

“Pastor Brazill wanted to provide low-income housing for the community using this land. I mean, he just had amazing foresight … but at that particular time it didn’t click. That’s what he wanted to do, and I’ve kept that in my heart.,” Christopher said, discussing the plans of the man who brought him into the ministry at Shiloh Baptist.

“Because of gentrification, generations that grew up here on the Hilltop were forced out. So we’re hoping to say to some of them, ‘Come back.’”

While it’s early, there are encouraging signs that Christopher isn’t the only local pastor who believes that local churches — and particularly those that own land — can be part of Tacoma’s answer to gentrification and the affordable housing crisis .

Not far away, at Greater Christ Temple Church on South 19th and G Street, Pastor Prentis Johnson said his church is also actively involved in discussions to turn land it owns into low-income housing.

Johnson said Greater Christ Temple hopes to develop 70 to 100 affordable units on real estate it owns overlooking downtown, at least part of it reserved for low-income seniors.

Johnson told The News Tribune that Greater Christ Temple is negotiating with developers and potential funders on a land-lease agreement that would make the project a reality in the coming years.

“I grew up in Tacoma, and I, for one, have experienced homelessness. We have members of our church that even now experience homelessness,” Johnson said. “Over the years I’ve lived in Tacoma, it shows me that there is a need for this.”

Asked about the project at Shiloh Baptist, Johnson said the church is setting an important example for others to follow.

According to Christopher, that’s the whole point.

“These pastors now are saying, ‘If Shiloh can do it, we can do it,’” Christopher said.

“They’re seeing that it’s possible.”