Community leaders and partners break ground Friday on Binion Senior Cottages, a 21-unit affordable housing development for low-income seniors on the grounds of Westside Church of God in Southwest Fresno. Photo by Dylan Gonzales
Community leaders broke ground Friday morning at the future location of Binion Senior Cottages, a 21-unit affordable housing development aimed at serving low-income seniors in Southwest Fresno.
The project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, was led by the Southwest Fresno Community Development Corporation in partnership with Westside Church of God. It is the first ever project in Fresno County developed under California’s Senate Bill 4 Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act, which allows religious institutions to build housing on underutilized lands.
The property is owned by Westside Church of God, but is being developed and will be operated by the Southwest Fresno Community Development Corporation.
Phase 1 will include eight one-bedroom cottages for residents 62 and older, many of whom are on fixed incomes and are at risk of homelessness. In total, the development will be 21 units and include green space, walking paths and community gathering areas designed to support aging in place.
“What we are seeing here today, what we are witnessing today is God’s hand, and we are seeing faith in action,” said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.
Joining Dyer was Councilmember Miguel Arias, Southwest Fresno Community Development Corporation Allysunn Walker, Bishop Paul L. Binion Sr. of Westside Church of God and Brad Bell, pastor at The Well Community Church.
“We don’t want our elders who live here to be faced with displacement and eviction because they can’t afford to pay their rent,” Walker said. “This is a small effort, as we mentioned, but as God says, don’t despise small beginnings. This is truly a solution.”
Binion Sr, the pastor at Westside Church of God, where the units will be located, said that the impact of senior housing on church land is about much more than just a place to live.
“We’re not just building a residence here, a place for seniors to live. We’re building a community here,” he said. “We’re going to bring people together, and we’re going to love them and help them and care for them and caress them and pray for them and teach the Bible as well.”
The timing of the groundbreaking ceremony is particularly meaningful for Bell, who recently said goodbye to his 80-year-old father and step-mother who relocated to West Virginia after California no longer became an affordable place to live.
“These homes will be the first of many that you don’t have to hug your loved ones while you load them in a car and you wave goodbye, because we can provide a place here in our great city where we can grow old and then maybe one day be viewed together,” Bell said.