Alexa Washburn, National CORE’s vice president of acquisitions and planning, joined members of Orange County churches and community groups on Aug. 17 to discuss ways to bring new affordable housing to Orange County.
The talk, held at the Fullerton Community Center, was hosted by OC United. The Fullerton-based nonprofit works to benefit the county on several levels. National CORE is assembling a video of the talk for use in upcoming events focused on creating partnerships with churches for new affordable housing developments.
Working with the churches provides a solution to one of the most difficult challenges facing affordable housing developers – finding land on which to build.
The per-unit cost to build new affordable housing is driven by a mix of limited land and high-cost land, labor and materials. Meanwhile, churches, which often own large plots of land in residential neighborhoods, are facing dwindling in-person congregations and are looking for ways to use this excess land to serve their communities.
Legacy Square, which opened this summer in Santa Ana, represents National CORE’s first partnership with a church; Additional church partnerships include Santa Angelina in Placentia, Vista de La Sierra in Riverside and Nestor Senior Village in San Diego. A fifth community, Orchard View Gardens in Buena Park, broke ground in August.