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Trinity East Village Senior living is breaking ground in downtown Houston, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacob Lujan\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A street sign reads the intersection of McGowen and St Charles street which will house the Trinity East Village Senior living is breaking ground in downtown Houston, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacob Lujan\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Trinity East Village Senior living is breaking ground in downtown Houston, Wednesday, July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacob Lujan\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
As they walked out of the Sunday morning service at Trinity East United Methodist Church, Erma Davis pointed to the grassy field across the street, which the church used for overflow parking and for picnics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think God gave us this land just for us to grow weeds,\u201d Herbert Green remembers her telling him. \u201cI think he gave us the land to do something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why not build housing for Third Ward seniors <\/a>who had spent their lives in the historically Black neighborhood<\/a> but faced the prospect of being priced out as land values climbed? The community, home to two universities, borders downtown and the Museum District.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That conversation took place about 34 years ago, Green said.<\/p>\n EMPTY LOTS, EMPTY PROMISES:\u00a0How Houston missed a $150M chance to fight displacement in Third Ward<\/a><\/p>\n After decades of work, the resulting 90-unit affordable development, Trinity East Village Senior, broke ground at the corner of McGowan and St. Charles streets. Over the decades, Davis and Green helped found the church\u2019s community development corporation; they and other members of the congregation spent years meeting with government officials, real estate developers, banks, nonprofits and other faith groups to bring the project to life. The $32 million development is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2027.\u00a0 Next, she announced, the church and its community development corporation would begin assembling financing to build a roughly 100-unit development next door for families with children.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The church\u2019s hands-on approach to tackling gentrification in its community is part of what some call the YIGBY movement. YIGBY is a play on the phrase NIMBY, or Not In My Backyard, often seen as a hindrance to development; YIGBY stands for Yes In God\u2019s Backyard. In addition to Trinity East United Methodist Church, St. John\u2019s Downtown has developed housing for those who were once homeless<\/a> through its community development corporation, Temenos, and in Third Ward, Rev. Leslie Smith II helped build affordable housing for seniors<\/a> through the Change Happens community development corporation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such churches see affordable housing as part of their mission to serve the community. Often, they either already own land in areas with rapidly rising land prices or have established reputations that can help acquire land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is truly the Lord\u2019s doing,\u201d said Rev. Marilyn White, pastor at Trinity East. \u201cIt is the result of years of faith, perseverance, partnership and unwavering belief that our seniors deserve a place that they can afford to live.\u201d<\/p>\n