Rev. Dr. R Joaquin Willis, left, is founder of the Collective Empowerment Group of South Florida, Inc., and former pastor, Church of the Open Door, Miami. Willis created the vision for church sponsored affordable homeownership in Miami-Dade County. Rendering of the 40 townhomes at Faith Community Baptist Church in Miami, Fla. where Pastor Richard Dunn II, and Willis partnered with developer, Prospera, to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to local residents. PHOTOS COURTESY OF LINKEDIN AND FCBCMIAMI.ORG, FLORIDAYIMBY.COM

MIAMI – A coalition of churches in the South Florida area is partnering with developers to build homes on infield lots and church properties in a plan to create homeownership in the Black community amid the state’s affordable housing crisis.

The Collective Empowerment Group of South Florida comprises 50 churches, 11 of which are exploring selling or leasing portions of church land to developers to erect affordable homes for people to own at reasonable rates.

Miami’s Faith Community Baptist Church, led by pastor Richard Dunn II, a former City of Miami commissioner, was the first church to strike a deal.

The Miami-Dade church sold two acres of its land at 10401 N.W. 8th Ave. to Miami-based Prospera to build 40 townhomes and parking for about 69 cars, which would require a rezoning change from RU-2 to RU-3M.

Dunn told the South Florida Times the price tag for the development, which is called Faith Place, is estimated at $11.5 million but did not want to disclose the amount the developer paid to

$50,000 pre-development funding to explore the projects in collaboration with Enterprise Community Partners and Faith Based Development Initiative.

Dunn said the idea is to build generations of wealth for Black and brown residents through homeownership and get churches involved in community-oriented development projects.

Dunn said the biggest challenge was getting approval from his church parishioners and board members to sell a portion of the 3.2-acre property  to build the homes.

He said eventually he was able to convince them the project would benefit the Black community which is struggling to find homeownership with soaring mortgage rates.

"It’s a win, win, win affordable situation," Dunn said. "It’s a win for Black and brown people having trouble buying homes, it’s a win to reduce the housing crisis and it’s a win for generations to come to build wealth through homeownership."

Prospera couldn’t be reached for comments.

Ellen C. Buckley, President and CEO of Prospera, told the South Florida Journal that her company supports affordable housing but the townhomes at Faith Community Baptist are not income-limited for buyers.

"The townhouses will be smaller than usual with the specific intent to offer them at affordable prices," Buckley said. "As prices in the market increase significantly, that has inhibited the ability for workforce income-level families to buy homes in the neighborhood where they live, homeownership helps close the wealth gap and helps them accumulate home equity."

Dunn credits Dr. Joaquin Willis, President and CEO of the Collective Empowerment Group and retired pastor for Church of the Open Door in Miami, for the idea to build homes on the church’s property.

"Dr. Willis came up with the plan that we can build 40 units with small zoning changes and sell the homes," Dunn said. "The church gets cash up front and down the road but more importantly, building generations of wealth for people to own homes."

Willis, 74, said the project has been his vision to build affordable homes with church involvement for 40 years.

Willis said churches have enough land to build homes on the campuses of the sanctuaries or adjacent land they own that is either empty or used for parking.

He said the fellowship program was also designed to attenuate the mass exodus of people seeking affordable homeownership outside Florida, diminishing the Black population and vote.

Willis said the effort to increase homeownership opportunities in the Black community has been a challenge for years because developers opted to build massive residential and mixed-use projects for lease in urban sprawl areas for bigger profits.

But with little land left to build in Miami-Dade County, developers are settling for smaller properties, and some agreed to do their part to address the affordable housing crisis in Florida, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States.

According to the real estate publication, South Florida Agent, the average sale price of a single-family home in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2022 was $1.065 million, which was a 16 percent increase from 2018.

Willis said 11 years ago, Tony Pardo, executive director of Collective Empowerment Group and a former banker, helped the group design its financing plan and staff to position "us to" do this."

Willis declined to disclose the churches involved in erecting homes on their properties because some of them are currently negotiating with developers and could jeopardize their deals.

Willis said similar affordable housing plans in South Florida target mostly renters, but local churches want to see more Black homeownership amid the population surge for Hispanics and increase African American leadership in the community.

"We want to build our community that way," Willis told the South Florida Times. "We want to build wealth in the Black community."

Willis said his vision of homes developed on church land includes amenities such as parks and community centers and childcare facilities and schools.

"I’m very excited about how smart we can build the community," Willis said. "Some people can’t afford to buy homes in the community but with the partnerships between the churches and developers, I think this is a good opportunity for people looking to purchase homes. It’s a great accumulation of Black wealth in the future."

Dunn and Willis connected 20 years ago and discovered they shared the same vision.

Dunn said while attending college in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1980s, he noticed churches had development agreements to build affordable housing for senior citizens and younger generations to alleviate the city’s affordable housing crunch and homelessness rate.

Dunn said when he moved to Miami, churches in the Black community were also involved in developing affordable housing in Overtown, Liberty City and Southwest Miami-Dade and he wanted to get in on the initiative.

Dunn said when he was pastor of Word of Life Church in Model City, the church and developers built about four single-family houses from 19992001 on infield housing lots in Liberty City.

When he was elected city commissioner, he placed future projects on hold to avoid any conflict of interests with developers who were seeking zoning approvals for building proposals.

After Dunn’s term in political office expired, he resumed his vision with Willis but with his new church Faith Community Baptist and was founding board member of the Collective Empowerment Group.

Willis recommended the church’s property for building housing units, identifying the value of the land which can enrich the church and provide homeownership for Black and brown residents.

"The church is cash poor but land Willis said the homes can enhance property values in the Black community and churches.

"Rentals bring down the property values," he said. "These homes will have a tremendous impact on the community."