[Excerpt]

...faith leaders and lawmakers from both sides... support two bills. The first: HB 2815, known as “Yes in Gods Back Yard”.

About HB2815, Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan, Minister at Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation said, “Many of our congregations are sitting on unused land that they're eager to convert into affordable housing. This bill would adjust zoning to make it easier to do so. With restrictions on density to ensure projects fit with neighborhoods and requirements that the units be affordable to low- and middle-income people."

Then there’s HB2576. This would renew the state's low-income tax credit.  Both bills work to address a long-term affordable housing solution while leveraging private equity.

Religious Leaders Calling on State Lawmakers to Address Housing Crisis, ABC 15 [pdf]

Religious Institutions Want AZ Law to Allow Low-Income Housing on Their Property, KJZZ [pdf]

[Excerpt]

What we kept hearing was housing, affordable housing in particular, and rental housing,"

said Barb Quijada of the Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Chandler.

....VIP had been hosting open house meetings for about two years, where representatives ask people about the real-life problems they are confronting.

Interfaith Group Maps Campaign for Dominion, Arizonan SanTan Sun

[Excerpt]

“Despite our differences in theology, we have so many things in common across the different denominations,” said Quijada, who is a member of Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

One of those things in common is affordable housing in the Valley. These congregations, which include Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians and even Muslims, are all coming together through VIP to fight for issues they believe are worth fighting for.

Interfaith Effort Fighting for Affordable Housing in Chandler, ABC 15 [pdf]

[Excerpts]

"I think as a community, as a church, most of us are looking out for each other. It's important we stay together as a congregation and the people we know and love aren't forced to move away," Davis says.

....VIP is assembling Chandler residents, like retiree Susan Davis, to share their personal experiences of housing insecurity with elected officials in hopes of garnering support for the project.

• Davis, who is a member of Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church, moved to Chandler in 2019 to be closer to the church. At the time, her rent was $1,100. It's now $1,900, plus fees.
• "I'm struggling now to survive month to month. I'm just making it by the skin of my teeth," she tells Axios Phoenix.

How Metro Phoenix Churchgoers Are Fighting Against NIMBYs, Axios Phoenix [pdf]

[Excerpt]

When Pope Francis told a group of U.S. community organizers that their work was "atomic," Jorge Montiel said, "I thought, 'Oh, you mean we blow things up?'"

But instead, the pope spoke about how the groups associated with the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation in the United States take issues patiently, "atom by atom," and end up building something that "penetrates" and changes entire communities, said Montiel, an IAF organizer in Colorado and New Mexico.

Pope Francis' hourlong meeting Sept. 14 with 15 delegates from the group was a follow-up to a similar meeting a year ago. Neither meeting was listed on the pope's official schedule and, the delegates said, both were conversations, not "audiences."

"It was relaxed, it was engaging," said Joe Rubio, national co-director of IAF. "Often you don't see that even with parish priests," he told Catholic News Service Sept. 15, garnering the laughter of other delegates.

Pope Meets US Leaders Patiently Building Culture of Solidarity, US Conference of Catholic Bishops / Catholic News Service [pdf]