Churches, synagogues, and mosques own millions of acres of land across the US, but are usually barred from building any housing on their property. Over the last few years, that’s started to change, and on Friday, congressional lawmakers are introducing a bill to exempt houses of worship from restrictive local zoning laws so they can build affordable homes.

The bipartisan Faith in Housing Act would override local housing rules, relying on Congress’s authority over interstate commerce and a federal statute that prevents local governments from unfairly limiting how religious groups can use their land. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Chuck Edwards (R-NC), would require any new housing built to serve low-income families on average, though individual units could be priced for moderate-income households earning up to 140 percent of the local median income. Up to 5 percent of the homes could be reserved for staff and clergy, but all other units must be made available to anyone regardless of their religious beliefs.

“It’s not going to generate hundreds of thousands of units, but it’s going to make the right statement,” Peters told me. “I think there’s always a concern about local control — something the left sometimes describes as ‘community input’ and sometimes on the right as ‘states’ rights’— but what we found is there’s a lot of places that are challenged to provide homes in both red and blue areas, and we hope to find common ground around our values.”

The Faith in Housing Act is part of a growing national movement known as “Yes in God’s Backyard” or “YIGBY” that seeks to take advantage of two worsening trends: the country’s growing shortage of affordable homes and the surplus of religious institutions grappling with rising costs and declining memberships. Many faith leaders recognize the win-win potential of YIGBY — by helping to house the homeless and other vulnerable populations, they can better serve their religious mandates, while also developing new sources of income to stabilize their finances.

The YIGBY movement got its start in San Diego, where advocates focused on ending homelessness worked with lawmakers in 2019 to make it easier for churches to build housing without first getting approval from local planning boards. In 2023, California’s legislature approved the Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act, taking San Diego’s concept statewide, and streamlining approvals so housing on church property could no longer be blocked by zoning or environmental objections. The Terner Center at UC Berkeley estimated that more than 47,00 acres of land owned by faith-based organizations across California could potentially be developed into affordable housing.

Building on this momentum, last year, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the

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