A study found that faith groups own more than 3,000 parcels of land in Hampton Roads. Some local advocates have long wondered: What if some of that land could be used to address the state’s housing crisis?
Members at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Virginia Beach had this idea a few years ago.
“We had a large piece of property, and it was on the bus line transportation, so we felt like it would be a great match,” said Teresa Stanley, a member of the church and housing advocate. “Doing it turned out to be something else, because there are so many obstacles in the way.”
The biggest hurdle: the property wasn’t zoned for higher density, multi-family housing like apartments, she said. The church eventually sold the property to Samaritan House, which turned it into a therapeutic group home for trafficked girls ages 11 to 17.
Housing advocates say the rezoning process is a huge barrier faith groups face. It’s often long, expensive and doesn’t guarantee approval. The process includes public hearings, where the voices of “Not In My Backyard”-- or NIMBY – activists often drown out calls for affordable housing in the community, said Joh Gehlbach, a senior campaigns manager at YIMBY Action.
“Who can show up to a zoning meeting on Tuesday at 2 pm?” he said. “Not somebody who is working a 9-to-5 or somebody who's trying to work hourly wage jobs to keep a roof over their head.”
A piece of new legislation awaiting Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s signature would have made the project easier, Stanley said.
The bill to allow faith groups to build affordable housing on tax-exempt properties without rezoning — sometimes referred to a “Yes in God’s Backyard”— received bipartisan support in the General Assembly. If signed by the governor, it would go into effect September 2027.
The bill removes the uncertainty of the zoning process from the equation, said Sheila Herlihy Hennessee, director of faith organizing at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
“By passing this legislation, we've made it so that you do know right off the bat you will have permission to build affordable housing,” she said.
That permission comes with conditions, said Annika Schunn, a housing policy advocate with Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia.
For example, the bill requires that at least 60% of the housing development's total units be for affordable housing and that the housing development remain affordable for at least 50 years.
When the idea was first introduced in 2024 and again in 2025, it received pushback from localities that felt it would take away their zoning control, Hennessee said.
But this year lawmakers saw the need.
“We've had local control and local authority over zoning for decades, and yet we still find ourselves with a shortage of nearly 300,000 homes in the Commonwealth,” she said. “That's not acceptable.”
And the bill doesn’t completely override local requirements, Schunn said.
The bill requires projects to follow local ordinances for historic districts, height limits and environmental standards. Projects also have to connect into existing public water and sewer lines.
Not all of the land owned by faith groups in Virginia will be suitable for housing, Gehlbach noted. Some of the land might be wetlands, for example.
“It's not going to solve the housing crisis overnight, but it is a piece of the puzzle,” he said. “Virginia's affordable housing shortage is so acute now that we really need to be trying every solution that we have.”
Del.Shelly Simonds (D-Newport News) said multiple housing bills made it over the finish line this year. She voted yes for the Faith in Housing bill and introduced another bill that would expedite approvals for affordable housing developments. The expedited approvals bill would apply to a wide range of projects — not just those on tax-exempt land owned by faith groups.
“In Virginia, only about 5% of the land is zoned or eligible for multi-family housing,” she said, adding that states like North Carolina have more land zoned for affordable housing and are outcompeting Virginia. “It's a real disadvantage for Virginia to not have a thriving housing supply.”
Spanberger, who has said affordability is a top property, has until April 13 to sign or veto legislation. Simonds said she’s optimistic Spanberger will give the housing bills the green light.
