This past week the residents of Corban Commons opened their doors to the City for a public hearing on housing development. City Council President Shannon Hardin, joined by Councilmember Nancy Day Achauer, hosted a public hearing on a new initiative that is part of Council’s Columbus Forward effort to address the City’s housing crisis. The initiative- Yes in God’s Backyard- is a package of legislation intended to support faith based organizations participate in developing housing for our community.
Corban Commons is an affordable housing community that has been serving seniors for almost 30 years. It was developed and is still owned by a collaboration of four non-profits, 3 of which are faith based entities.
Corban is a model for the type of collaboration YIGBY policies would incentivize and support. The City wants more churches to follow the path created by Dayspring Christian Development Corporation, New Salem Baptist Church and Mt. Hermon Baptist Church who many years ago set out to ensure affordable housing for their Northeast Columbus community.
Speakers at the event included community members, developers, housing advocates and church representatives— all in support of CP Hardin’s YIGBY efforts. Each emphasized in their own words the need for more affordable housing, more housing opportunity and more collaborative opportunities for our community. Dayspring CDC’s Johnny Pitts opened the hearing with a prayer and both he and New Salem Baptist Church’s Adam Troy provided insight from their extensive experience leading faith based housing development like Corban Commons.
“We need everyone interested in developing affordable housing to grab a shovel.”- Dayspring Christian CDC President, Johnny Pitts
Our own Community Building Partner’s CEO, Joe Recchie, who has provided technical expertise and support to faith based organizations for over 45 years, shared some of the unique perspectives’ faith based organizations, rooted in their communities, provide to their own neighborhood development.
There are just 25 affordable housing units per 100 extremely low income households in Columbus, according to the 2025 Gap Report. The city is growing by 15,000- 20,000 new jobs each year but is only gaining 5,000-6,000 new housing units annually. Not only are those new units rarely attainable for average Columbus residents, but the rate that the city is losing existing affordable housing units is adding to that deficit.
CP Hardin’s YIGBY efforts acknowledges that many area churches have large parking lots, acres of green space or nearby plots of land that are ripe for reactivation, but lack the resources, technical expertise or support to do so. These are willing, trusted, mission-driven partners in the community that are ready to jump into the effort but need a little support to fully participate in a housing solution.
We are grateful to the Columbus City Council for this vision, and our residents were pleased to host the community in their own home. Our Community Building Partners team and our partners at Dayspring, New Salem and Mt. Hermon, are excited to share our expertise and insights to support more faith- based organizations as they engage in housing development in Columbus.
