Repurposing Under-Used Church Buildings into Affordable Housing

Repurposing Under-Used Church Buildings into Affordable Housing

Aired: June 15, 2026

John Longhurst, CBC faith contributor, speaks with guest host Julie Buckingham about how faith groups across Canada are partnering with developers to convert at-risk church properties into community housing hubs.

Listen to original show on CBC Listen.

The Building Stays. The Mission Grows.

Across Canada, a quiet question is being asked in church basements and board meetings: what is this place really for, and could it be for more?

It is a question worth sitting with. The National Trust of Canada estimates that as many as nine thousand churches could close in the years ahead, roughly a third of every faith owned building in the country. At the same time, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says Canada needs to build more than four hundred and fifty thousand homes a year, every year, for the next decade.

Set those two numbers side by side and it is easy to read a crisis. We think the more honest reading is an opportunity.

Why so many buildings are at risk

The pressures are not mysterious. Fewer people are attending weekly services, and the strain falls hardest on mainline congregations, the United, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Anglican communities that built so many of these buildings. Plenty of them now gather fewer than fifty people on a Sunday, and many of those folks are seniors. Fewer hands and tighter budgets add up to a hard truth: a lot of churches today are one broken furnace or one roof replacement away from closing their doors.

We see land, and we see neighbours

Here is where we tend to part ways with the usual framing. When others see an emptying building, we see something different. We see land that is often well located, close to transit, already trusted by the people around it, and sitting on some of the most valuable real estate in the community.

So the question we ask is not "how do we save the building." It is "what does this community actually need, and can this place help provide it?" Sometimes the answer is housing. Often it is more than that: a daycare, a seniors space, a food bank, a place for music and culture, a hub where neighbours can gather. The property is a tool. The community impact is the point.

What change can look like

There is no single playbook, and that is a feature, not a flaw. Sometimes a building comes down and homes rise in its place. Sometimes only part of a property changes hands. Saint Peter's Lutheran in Kitchener took down its Christian education wing and built forty one affordable homes there. Sometimes the sanctuary itself becomes housing, as it has at Saint Matthew's Anglican in Winnipeg, with other congregations now converting whole sanctuaries into seniors housing.

The right path depends entirely on the place, the people, and the need.

A Kelowna story: Peace Lutheran

Closer to home, Peace Lutheran Church in Kelowna is pursuing a vision for housing and a daycare on its property, and we are walking that road alongside them.

What matters most about this story is what the church does not have to become. It does not turn into a developer. It does not run the daycare, and it does not manage the homes. The YMCA brings the childcare expertise. Housing partners operate the units. The congregation gets to keep being a congregation. Everyone does what they do best.

Moving at the speed of trust

Our director, Laurence East, described our approach simply in a recent CBC conversation. We move at the speed of trust. We never run ahead of a congregation. They take a step, and almost immediately we take that step with them.

We have no interest in a church's theology, its practices, or how it does its work. Our job is to carry the parts a congregation was never meant to carry on its own: rezoning, municipal approvals, financing, the business plan, and finding the developer who can do the build.

Three honest hurdles

This work is hopeful, but it is not easy, and we would rather be clear about that than oversell it.

The first hurdle is expertise. Churches rarely have the specialized knowledge these projects demand, which is exactly why partners exist. The second is finance, because the legal, environmental, traffic and community reviews all cost real money before a single home is built. The third is the hardest, and it is courage. Stepping out in faith toward an ambitious idea, before the whole path is visible, asks something genuine of a board.

Where this begins

If you sit on a board or lead a congregation, and you have felt a quiet sense that your building could be doing more for the people around it, you are not imagining it. That instinct is the beginning of impact.

The land is a tool. The mission is what it is for.

This post draws on a CBC Information Radio (Manitoba) conversation between faith contributor John Longhurst and guest host Julie Buckingham, featuring our own Laurence East of Reframe Concepts.