Group to Host Prayer Vigil for Housing, Racial Justice

The local organization Making Housing and Community Happen is planning a prayer vigil Saturday in pursuit of affordable housing solutions and racial justice.

Pasadena City Councilman John Kennedy and state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Glendale, were scheduled to take part in the vigil, scheduled for 4 p.m. at New Hope Baptist Church, 1787 N. Fair Oaks Ave. in Pasadena, MHCH said in a written statement.

“The prayer vigil will focus on how racial and economic inequity can be addressed through affordable housing,” according to the statement. “During this one-hour event we will offer prayers of confession, commitment, thanksgiving and petitions for our neighbors who are un-housed, displaced or housing insecure, and that religious institutions will be allowed to build affordable housing on their underutilized land.”

MCHC Executive Director Jill Shook said churches have a vital role to play in social justice.

“Churches throughout Pasadena are eager to help address the affordable/homeless housing crisis we are currently facing. One of the biggest obstacles to building affordable housing is finding appropriate sites. Partnering with willing churches seemed like a match made in heaven,” Shook said.

“Some cities, like Evanston, Illinois, and Manhattan Beach, are finally acknowledging their racist history towards housing and land,” Shook said. “We feel we are breaking new ground here in Pasadena by publicly confessing the racial injustices of the past and making a commitment to changes that will bring hope to low-income residents and communities of color.”

New Hope Baptist Church has proposed to build 52 units of affordable housing on its property, according to MCHC.

“A small church with a dwindling congregation due to gentrification, its pastor Othella Medlock is hopeful that building affordable housing on her church land will bring ‘new life’ to her church and to her community,” the statement said.

“I would hope that our church will be seen as an asset to the community, that we have compassion and care about our neighbors,” according to Medlock. “We don’t have a lot of resources like big churches but we have a valuable asset, our land. In Acts 4, early Christians sold their property and provided for the poor. We want to use our land for the betterment of our community.”

More information on Making Housing and Community Happen can be found online at makinghousinghappen.org.