Edmonton launches $2M program to help faith groups convert empty churches, extra land to affordable housing

A new funding program will support Edmonton’s faith-based charities to explore how they could convert their properties into affordable housing. 

The Faith Lands Affordable Housing Incentive will cover pre-construction costs such as feasibility studies, environmental and technical assessments, community engagement, design and legal consultancy, and zoning and permit planning. 

With $2 million available in the overall pot, applicants could be eligible for up to $135,000 in funding.  

Pre-construction costs are one of the biggest bottlenecks and areas of highest risk for non-market housing development, said Ryan Young, executive director, impact investment at the Edmonton Community Foundation. 

Simultaneously, there isn’t a lot of funding available for charities and faith-based groups to explore opportunities and feasibility, added Stuart Kehrig, director of the City of Edmonton’s Housing Action Team. 

Previously, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) offered some pre-construction feasibility funding, he said, but that program has since closed, “due to the government’s Comprehensive Expenditure Review.”

The Foundation and the City have jointly launched the funding opportunity, with the latter awarded funding from the CMHC. Both will evaluate applications they receive between June and December 2026. 

Edmonton’s decision to focus on faith-based groups follows an announcement from Releven that it will look to encourage faith groups to “dedicate an ambitious and measurable percentage of faith-owned land toward ending homelessness and building community resilience” through the Winnipeg Declaration. 

Meanwhile, churches continue to represent a large proportion of the charities whose status is revoked due to closures.  

Aside from holding significant land assets, faith groups are also looking for ways to “accommodate the community more actively than just opening the doors on a Sunday,” said Rev. Travis Enright of St. Faith’s Anglican Church in Edmonton. 

When it comes to the potential of housing development on church property, however, there is potential overwhelm about the bureaucracy and red tape involved – including on the charity’s side itself, Rev. Enright said. Not only are some churches managed by older people, but others might be very expensive buildings to maintain and insure, he added. 

“A lot of faith groups don’t even necessarily own their land,” Young said. “Their denomination or their diocese, whatever body they work under, often owns land in trust for them. 

“So there are a lot of issues like that that [churches] need to explore to see what is possible.”

Still, some are making the transition. In Vancouver, a former church site reopened its doors this week as a hub for affordable housing and community services, having raised $39 million for redevelopment.

Finding a capital stack

At a pre-meeting before the official announcement of the fund, Young said he saw extensive interest not just from churches, but also from temples, mosques and several other faith groups. 

Two churches in Edmonton have already partnered with local non-profit housing providers, transferring land to the non-profit. 

Both Young and Kehrig have seen interest among faith groups in exploring affordable housing opportunities, but little awareness of what the planning and construction process entails on their land. 

“There’s no certainty of an outcome that you’d be able to have affordable housing [on your land], or that you’d be able to recoup some of those costs,” Kehrig added. 

Given that any development needs to stay financially viable and sustainable, he envisions any development on church-land being mixed-market housing, where some units are rented out at market prices, while others are subsidized. 

The proportion of market-to-subsidized units will vary project-to-project, Kehrig said, depending on a housing provider’s cash flow and ability to pay off their mortgage. 

That said, any faith-based charity that applies for this funding from the City of Edmonton and Edmonton Community Foundation will have to demonstrate that at least some portion of their proposed development is reserved for affordable housing. 

Young, on the other hand, has seen some non-market housing providers juggling more than 10 sources of funding, and others that have very high interest rates from their financiers. 

Why faith charities are leaning in

Rev. Enright is particularly grateful for the way in which the funding program has been designed by the City and the Community Foundation: “There’s no requirement to say: ‘I will build something. I will build a 50-storey high-rise,’” he said. 

What will be very valuable for the faith community, he said, is the mentorship. 

“There’s also a whole bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo and red tape that is important but we’ve never thought about, or we don’t have the skillset even to answer,” Rev. Enright said. 

“I think the scariest part is that we know we should be asking questions, but we don’t know the questions to be asking.”

He hopes that such projects give rise to a model wherein congregations that gather on Sunday can spread their impact across the rest of the week.