the faithful foundations with Candi Adams (ep 2b, 46).

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
candi adams. (00:01):
Housing as we talk about it in society is very.
Quantitative, right?
We talk about homelessnessand statistics and numbers
and how many people, livehere and how much it costs.
But home is,personal to everyone.

(00:23):
whatever that means And soI think, you know there's
a of understanding from alot of what the churches are
providing in their missions.
they see the humanityin what they're doing.
And I think that is really,really important because
it's not about statisticsor numbers or how many
families they feed per week.
It's how manypeople can we help?

mike. (01:29):
Well, you're listening to the underview and Exploration
and the shaping of our place.
My name is Mike Rusch andtoday we're gonna talk about
something that we've talked alot about affordable housing.
But wait, hold on.
Don't go anywhere justyet because I wanna
have an honest moment.
We've talked a lot about thislike a lot, and I've struggled
probably like most to reallyfind places where we're making
progress, where solutionscan scale and where people

(01:52):
and not profit are the focus.
We've seen MovementForward like with the
Excellerate Foundation's,Bentonville School's
teacher housing initiative.
But that in and of itselfwon't solve the problem alone.
Here in northwest Arkansas,home prices have jumped over
70% in the last five years, andthe median rent has increased
38% in Bentonville, 30% inRogers, 27% in Fayetteville.

(02:13):
And honestly, it's easy to feellike we're just documenting a
crisis without really findingany pathways forward, but
that's when I learned about theFaithful Foundation's program.
It's a program created bythe Urban Land Institute
of Northwest Arkansas.
this program brings togetherfaith communities and real
estate professionals to addressaffordable housing in a way
that I've not seen before.
The simple idea is thiscould faith communities and

(02:34):
churches that have land thatthey already own, could they
use that to help address theaffordable housing issue?
ULI did their search and theymapped it out and they found
that there's over 1600 parcelsof land that cover almost seven
square miles owned by more than650 faith organizations right
here in Benton and Washingtoncounties alone land that's

(02:55):
sitting there underutilizedin locations that are wholly
appropriate for affordablehousing development, land that
churches already own, whichcompletely changes the equation
when land costs have becomethe primary barrier to building
homes that people can afford.
So ULI created an educationalgroup and invited a pilot
cohort of churches ifthey would be interested.

(03:16):
Six churches accepted thatfirst invite and formed the
first cohort historic St.
James Missionary BaptistChurch in Fayetteville, Trinity
United Methodist, Christ andNeighbor Church in Rogers.
First Christian Church inRogers, first United Methodist
in Bentonville and the ArkansasJRD Marshallese United Church
of Christ in Springdale.
Six congregations representingdifferent traditions,

(03:37):
different communities,different neighborhoods, all
asking the same question.
How do we use what we have tocare for those who need it most?
Today I am sitting down withCandy Adams, the director of
Signature programs for ULINorthwest Arkansas, who led
this program from grant proposalto the final pitch event.
And what you're about to hearis more than just a housing
program, it's the storyabout unlikely partnerships,

(04:00):
about translating missioninto real estate, about
hope as a practical tool andabout what becomes possible
when people make space atthe table for everybody.
Alright, we've got a wholelot to work through today.
Let's get into it.

mike rusch. (04:15):
Well, I have the privilege today of
sharing a table with CandiAdams who's the director
of Signature Programs forULI here in Northwest Arkansas
Candi, welcome tothe conversation.
I'm really glad to be ableto sit with you today.

Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.

And I'm excited too because I feel like I've
been following from behind thescenes and I'm really excited
to, to hear this directly fromyou and this work that you're
doing because this program,the Faithful Foundations
program that you've beenleading is really unique in
my opinion, and sounds like areally promising way that we
can practically address thehousing issues that we're having

(04:49):
here in northwest Arkansas.
Tell me a little bit aboutyour background and who you are
and and then we'll move intohow you got connected to this.

Sure.
So I guess as a background,I would first just
say Arkansas is home.
I have lived and worked in everyregion of the state.
grew up in Jonesboro and wentto college here and always
said if I had an opportunityto move back that I would
lived in South Arkansas.
In the Timberlands Delta areafor 15 years and that also

(05:17):
became home and moved back here.
I had an opportunity to teachat the university, which I
absolutely loved and madesome really great connections
and also just really goodexperience and education.
But I left there a couple ofyears ago and had, a mentor of
mine who is a former professor.
Her name is JamieRadzinski, just precious

(05:38):
woman, but she connectedme to Wes.
I told her, I was like, I'm,I wanna stay in education
to some level, but I know Idon't wanna be necessarily
in traditional practice.
I'm an architect by trade.
I don't think I said that,but I'm an architect by trade.
And I was looking for somesort of opportunity in a
nonprofit that number one,have impact but also work in an
educational aspect of design.

(06:01):
And she connectedme to Wes Craiglow.
And I came online a littleover a year ago, just in
time to help dot some i's andcross some t's for the grant
proposal to Walton FamilyFoundation on the Faithful
Foundations program.
And we hit the ground runningas soon as we had been approved.

I'm sure that's a very humble,
shortened version of yourbackground So I'm sure
we're gonna get intothis a little bit more.
But maybe for those whohave not heard about this,
give me an idea of ULI'smission here in Northwest
Arkansas for those that maynot have heard, and then
maybe how thisFaithful Foundations
program fits within the workthat you're doing today.

Absolutely.
ULI, of course is aglobal organization.
And the broader mission is," achieving transformative impact
in communities worldwide." Andthat is primarily through
educational programming.
A lot of networking anddiscussions about ethical and
responsible land use planningand how to be sustainable
in that both economicallyand environmentally.

(07:00):
But understanding howthat impacts here.
We are in a growing regionand the growth of course is
exponential, but with thatcomes some growing pains.
We've seen a lot ofescalating land costs.
Many of us are awarethere is an affordable
housing crisis, just in thesense that homes in every

(07:21):
range of affordability are inshortages for all income levels.
Where the Urban Land Institutehas an opportunity to have
impact in that realm isidentifying ways that we
can responsibly access theland that is available for
development and keeping inmind how that impacts cost of
living and quality of life.

(07:41):
So when we're lookingat a program like
Faithful Foundations theoverall objective of course is
to create affordable housing.
And we are working with faithorganizations specifically
because we realize reallynot just in this region, but
all over the country and allover the world, churches have
substantial land holdings.
For whatever reason, manyof them have held them

(08:01):
for hundreds of years.
And there might be a historicalpresence there or cultural
presence, but at the sametime in a region like this,
that land has escalatedin value exponentially.
When we see affordable housingprojects very commonly dismissed
because they just don't pencilright The it doesn't make sense

(08:23):
to build a low cost housingon land that's so expensive.
When you're working witha church that is already a
nonprofit organization they'renot looking at a project
that is based entirely ona capital revenue stream
or something like that.
They are thinkingmore about expanding

(08:44):
their missions.
So a lot of the churches arealready working boots on the
ground in their neighborhoods.
They're working in foodpantries, they're working
with those in need in warmingshelters, homeless shelters.
There's all sorts of ways thatthey're connecting with people
every day in their community.
To introduce housing as anextension of some of those
missions on land that is vacantand available That's a very high

(09:07):
cost for a traditional developeror a designer or someone who's
looking to build housing.
Otherwise.
It's the Venn diagramoverlap of where the ULI
mission for responsible andethical land use planning
overlaps withthat of a faith organization
that has land availableand maybe doesn't really
know what to do with itor how to capitalize on

(09:27):
it for a greater good.

I think in listening to you, the, this
is really interesting becauseyou're bringing together
some unlikely allies, Ithink in some ways, right?
Is that a fair statement?
I think, and not that theywouldn't be allies, but these
are traditionally not people whoare working together in a way
that could be collaborativelybenefiting the community.
And I'm curious, where did theorigin of this program, the

(09:52):
idea of this program, come from?

That's a really fair question, and I think
what is really interesting,because when you look
at the membership of ULIthat are in real estate
architecture engineering, landplanning, urban design a lot
of those are policy makers.
And then when youlook at the typical.
Staff components of a church.

(10:15):
they're usually very limited.
They're seeing decliningrevenue, declining
membership, so they're, it'svolunteer staff in a lot
of their mission programs.
How are you getting all ofthese people to work together?
And I think one areawhere ULI is successful
is in their educationalprogramming And so
we already have severalopportunities for people

(10:36):
to learn about urbandesign and development
But we have another program.
That is structuredsimilarly in the sense of
curriculum development,real estate development
1 0 1, it's called theReal Estate
Diversity Initiative.
And it is a 12 part workshopseries for aspiring developers
that's historically designed toincrease diversity in the real

(10:57):
estate development industry.
We were able, because we'vehad that program established
as as a national organizationand a national program, we
borrowed that curriculum andbasically tweaked it to think
about how can we respondspecifically to affordable
housing and typologies anddemographics associated
with that But at the sametime, how can we tweak it to

(11:19):
communicate with churches?
I think we have a lotof things to still fine
tune as we continuedeveloping, but as a first
iteration The programwas designed specifically
as an educational andnetworking opportunity.
So how can we bring churchesin that are already thinking
about designing affordablehousing or building affordable
housing on their land invarious scales and typologies?

(11:41):
How can we bring theminto the conversation of
what does it really taketo develop real estate?
So we introduced, thisyear we had six churches.
We worked with all sixchurches through a 12 part
workshop, curriculum series.
Eight of those workshopswere content education,
around site development andassessment and financing and

(12:03):
how to develop a proforma.
What is a proforma?
How do you hire an architect?
And what is the process forworking through construction?
Just introducing them to a lotof terminology, but also the
processes and the teams thatare required to see a project
through the last four parts.
The last four workshopswere intended to help them

(12:24):
develop a site andproject specific proposal.
So we brought in 18 technicalconsultants that were
within our member network.
They were volunteers, butthey were professionals
in design, development,finance engineering, site
planning, urban planning.
And we divided them into teamsto work with each church.

(12:45):
And they were able tosit down across the table
over the course of abouteight to 10 weeks total.
And develop a strategyfor affordable housing
implementation.
That was number one, specificto that church's context.
So what's appropriatewithin their neighborhood
and their location.
Building in downtownBentonville, for example, is

(13:06):
very different than buildingin historic South Fayetteville.
So how do you relateto that design context?
And then also how do youcapitalize on your missions
that you already have in place?
So how do you tiehousing in as an
extension of the missionsthat you are already pursuing?
And I think keeping afocus on those things was

(13:27):
important in keeping theseprojects to a level of
feasibility and capacity thatthe churches can
manage them long term.
But then also it's somethingthat they believe in, right?
They can build a consensusaround this because they're
already doing some of this work.

mike. (13:44):
I think from my perspective
anyway most peoplethat live in northwest
Arkansas theyprobably understand
that it's a profit driven model.
But when you step into a churchfaith-based paradigm all of
those rules or requirements theytake on a different component.
You started to talk about thisa little bit, and I'd love for
you to expand, like from yourperspective, how does this,

(14:07):
intersection between a church'smission and this practical boots
on the ground building housing.
What's that first phase oftrying to understand motivations
and mission alignment and howyou bring these two worlds
that are, in my opinion,seem to be very different?
How do you bring 'em together?

They can be very different, I think.
For starters, we've seen alot of understanding from
churches over the last fewdecades
Often they're experiencingdeclining population,
which is also adeclining revenue
If I have heard once in thelast year, I have probably
heard it a hundred times, weare land rich and cash poor.

(14:48):
They're declining revenuestreams, but they know
the value of their land.
And so to your point of, thisis not a traditional development
and it's not necessarilya for-profit strategy.
Churchesare already working in a world
of how to benefit the communitythat is not capital driven.

(15:09):
It's not a for-profit endeavor.
They're not doingit for their own personal
gain They're doing it for thebetterment of their community.
And so when you look atthe value of their land,
it's really not worthanything unless it's used.
And that's really thecase in any land, right?
Just knowing how thatmight be an asset.
But for churches specifically,when we're bringing them

(15:30):
into the discussion of realestate development or they
suggest, we're already doingthis on one side of service,
how can we bridge intohousing It's a huge step
It is a huge step.
There's a lot of differencein, managing a church
facility daylight hours onlyin some cases, to managing
a housing complex that havefamilies of, however many

(15:54):
families that are livingthere 24 7 with dogs and kids
and cars and everything else.
It's a differentstrategy altogether.
And so how do we getthem to feel comfortable?
And I think where, wherewe are at an advantage
within ULI is, that's whatour members do every day.
They are property managers.
They understand development,they understand long-term

(16:16):
financing strategies.
They also understand long-termproperty management strategy.
Do you hire that done or do youhave someone in house and they
can speak from experience onwhat is successful, what are
lessons learned even if it'sa for-profit model that they
may be pulling from, they canunderstand the experience and
the process of this is whatyou're gonna need to think
about as you're going into this,

I'm curious, maybe can you just click a profile
of what maybe some of thesechurches or if you want to name
them you're welcome to also,but like these churches,
what's the context thatthey're coming from?
I mean, I gotta be honest,there's a lot of churches
that are very well resourcedin northwest Arkansas.
Are we talking aboutwell-resourced faith
communities or are we lookingat a different profile of

(17:01):
churches that are coming inand stepping into this space?

We intentionally set out to identify
churches this year and it wasa little bit organic because
again, it's a pilot program.
Sure.
connecting networks and theresearch that we have since
done was not yet compiled,but identifying churches
that we had been told orinterested or even just cold

(17:24):
calling and doing outreach.
We connected with dozensand dozens of churches
and faith organizationsthroughout northwest Arkansas.
Just asking the question andwhat I think was a really good
surprise for me, and I saygood surprise in the sense
that I didn't really expectto see this happen, but,
there was a lot of enthusiasm.
There was a lot ofinterest that had already

(17:45):
been pursued that Ihadn't even been aware of.
I think too, wereally wanted to try
to identify churchesthat represented a good
cross section ofour communities.
So some of the churches weworked with are probably
better resourced than others.
That wasn't necessarily adeciding factor in any way.

(18:07):
It was more trying to understanda difference in neighborhood
context, understand differentgroups that they may be wanting
to serve but also we werelooking for churches that
had different ideas on.
Ranges of affordability andhousing typology because
from where we stand asreal estate and design

(18:27):
professionals, it's all needed.
Everything from those whoare unhoused to, workforce
families, up to 120% of theAMI are struggling to find
housing that's affordableunless they are being moved
into peripheral communities.
And so I think we specificallyfocused on the four

(18:49):
primary population centers.
So Bentonville, Rogers,Springdale, and Fayetteville.
And we were fortunate to workwith one in Bentonville, two
in Rogers, one in Springdale,and two in Fayetteville.
From all differentranges different age
groups, different racialprofiles and demographics.
And I think that's a reallyimportant thing to consider
because as a growing populationit is more diverse and I

(19:13):
think that's economicallyand all different ways
that we wanted to offersome sort of representation
of what that could be.

As I listen to you talk about these churches
and these profiles I can'thelp but like grasp onto this
thought that you have a, Ilooked at the list of churches
will provide that in the shownotes that's available on
your website, but these arechurches that are serving
really under-resourced peoplealready and trying to meet a
really resource heavy need.

(19:42):
And they don't seem to flinch,they seem to move right into
that unconcerned about maybe howfar apart sometimes the needs
are from what the resourcesrequired are to do that.
I'm curious yourthoughts on that.
Is that a fairrepresentation of that?

I think so.
I think learning about.
Some of the missions and some ofthe impact that these churches
are having on a daily basis hasprobably been one of the
most personally rewardingparts of this program.
Just because, theyhave so much on their
plates in a lot of ways.
they are they're offeringresources to immediate

(20:21):
needs on a dailybasis and on a weekly schedule.
And they don't flinch.
They don't, there's not,oh we're not gonna run
the food pantry this week.
They know that's, especiallyin, current circumstances
where people aren'treceiving food assistance.
They are, they're the resourceAnd they step up and they do
that without questioning it.

(20:42):
I can't say I knowwhy they do it.
I just.
I do think a lot of it hasto do with their faith.
I think that's what they feellike they're called to do.
But I think too, they just, theybelieve in what they're doing.
And I think that's I thinkthat's a beautiful thing
that they're doing thisbecause they see the value
they're getting to knowthese people that they're
assisting and they're ableto connect with them at a

(21:05):
level of at a personal level.
And I think that'sreally important.
as someone who's workedin community development
and nonprofit workand even affordable housing
for a number ofyears is personal.
Housing is very personal.
Housing as we talk aboutit in society is very.

(21:28):
Quantitative, right?
We talk about homelessnessand statistics and numbers
and how many people livehere and how much it costs.
But home personal to everyone.
Whatever thatmeans And so I think,
there's a of understanding froma lot of what the churches are
providing in their missions.
They see the humanityin what they're doing.

(21:50):
And I think that is reallyimportant because it's not about
statistics or numbersor how many families
they feed per week.
It's how manypeople can we help?

I would love you to continue just
that stream of thought.
I think it's reallybeautiful to hear that.
And we probablycan't hear it enough.
Because these arechurches that are they're
dedicated to the missionthat they're working through.
They're taking it unbelievablyserious to commit themselves
to this type of cohort modelin a year long program.
I'm curious how thosechurches within those cohorts

(22:22):
interacted or collaborated.
I'm assuming they didn'tgo through it on their own,
just in an individual silo.
I'm curious what happenedbehind the scenes a little
bit within those Yeah.
Spaces where they're allbrought together working
on these problems together.

I would like to think that they all built
relationships through this.
I know at our pitch event thatwe held in October for all of
them to present their projectswe had everyone lined along
the front row because they wentone after another to speak.
But just watching them timeeach other and communicate
and seeing them in theworkshops together, it was.
It was certainly intendedto be some sort of peer

(22:55):
mentoring, peer learning.
I do think we can divea lot deeper into that.
And I think, getting themto each other's property and
saying, this is what we have,this is what we're working with.
Like how can we really buildon connecting different
ideas, but then also theseare the resources we have.
This is what we're looking atI will say and I don't wanna
backtrack too much 'causeit's not fully related to

(23:16):
the question you just asked,but something that you
mentioned earlier abouthow do you connect these two
groups of people between a groupof real estate professionals
and a group of church oftenvolunteers, staff or volunteers.
And there is a level ofdisconnect just in the reality
of what these projects are.
There'scertainly the, "I believe

(23:36):
in this and I wanna helppeople and I wanna do good
and I'm called to do good."And there's that side of
it that is really importantbecause they have to have the
belief that's going to make adifference in their community
for them to even pursue it.
But then the realityof it's gonna cost $6
million to build this.
How do you get into the, thisis a financing structure that

(23:59):
works, this is what a capitalstack is, this is what your
pre-development costs are.
And I think that was wherewe tried in the educational
programming to be asreal and open about that
terminology as possible.
These are the real estate terms.
This is the real world ofreal estate development.
And I do think we need toprobably do a little more

(24:19):
work in just bridgingthat communication.
but at the same time, I dothink it's important to.
To explain, these arereal projects and they
cost real money, andit takes a lot of time.
And there are approvals throughthe city and there are
zoning requirements andthere are policy changes.
There's all sorts of thingsthat go into a project

(24:41):
that they may just not befamiliar with and they may
not really be prepared for.
And that's justthe reality of it.
But that's with any developmentproject, anyone who is looking
to build anything is notfamiliar with the process.
It's gonna be a learning curve

Yeah, I'm continually, I think, drawn back
to this dynamic of churchesthat are working with really
under resourced people in areally resourced technical a
place to provide something that,to your point, is very personal.
And those dynamics of churchesthat are being active in that
way just is really appealing tome and really beautiful to see.
And, And I know thathappens in our world, in

(25:15):
our community a lot morethan we probably understand.
I think maybe the stereotypethat I would carry into it is,
in many ways that like you'vegot churches, it feels like,
that are working togetheron this aligned mission of
what's best for our community.
I'm gonna assume they hada lot of conversations to
iron out and make sure thatall their theology aligned
before they decided to go inand do something like this

(25:36):
in the community, right?
Is that part ofthat conversation?
I wouldn't answer thatif I were you, but I'm
gonna say it anyway.

I'm gonna be honest.
Going into this andknowing what this program
was, I was very nervous.
Okay.
We're gonna bring six churchesof varying faith and ideology
and just even in the local.
Not local, just global politicalclimate of being divisive and,
polarized in so many ways.
I was verynervous and I have to say,

(26:01):
one of the things I think wasprobably most
successful and probablysurprising to me is that it
really wasn't about that.
It wasn't ideology.
It wasn't, oh, you're Church ofChrist and I'm Methodist,
and you're Baptist.
It wasn't about that.
At all.
I don't think the conversationsever even really came up

(26:24):
except for each, we askedthe churches to focus on
their independent missions.
We worked with anexcellent church in Rogers.
First Christian,and he is very open.
This is our vision statementand this is what we believe in.
And our response wassimply focus on that.
Okay, what are you alreadydoing And how can

(26:45):
you build on thatBut I think by allowing them
to search within themselvesand their own congregations of
what is important what'simportant to St. James
Missionary Baptist andwhat is important to First
Christian in Rogers or TrinityUnited Methodist Church.
I think it was more aboutletting them be self-reflective.

(27:10):
Because that's their storyand that's why they're doing
what they're doing.
And it's notabout I believe this
or I believe that.
And I was reallygrateful for that.

you mentioned a little bit about
the diversity of thechurches that you
were working with.
Was that intentional as a partof this screening process?
Or walk me through how that kindof played out a little bit more.

I don't know if I would say is
intentional in the screeningprocess because, truthfully,
it was really organic.
We had an incredible leadershipteam with this program put
together of professionals inhousing advocacy
nonprofit management.
We had several faith-basedleaders that were, that are
guiding nonprofits now infaith housing initiatives.

(27:50):
And it was really relying onthem and, within their networks.
And they're aware of this churchthat's looking at housing or
we learned that this churchhas established an affordable
housing committee over ayear ago, and they don't
really, they don't reallyknow what to do with it, but
they wanna build housing.
So it was very organic.
We, were fortunate in thesense that we happened

(28:13):
to meet a number ofchurches that had already
considered this, but theywere all over the map at what
level they had pursued it.
We worked with one church thatthere, they just purchased their
first property and they haven'tbuilt their church yet, but
they know that they need housingwithin their community and
they wanna build housing tosupport their congregation

(28:33):
and their community members.
We worked with another churchwho had gone to a developer and
had a full fledged feasibilitystudy ready to go and wanted to
look into Litech applications.
It was a very broadrange of where they were.
I think, within our capacity,we set, I think in our
grant proposal, four to sixchurches for the first year.

(28:55):
And so we werefortunate to come.
Work with six.
But a lot of that was justlogistical relationship
of people in a classroom.
How many people canwe effectively work
with at one time?
And I think there's opportunityfor more, within the research
that we found, I have six, sixhundred and fifty eight churches
listed in the spreadsheet thatare faith organizations, not

(29:17):
necessarily just churches.
A lot of nonprofitsare also faith-based.
And we're open with working opento working with those as well.
There are a lot of them here.
We're in the Bible though, Iget that I grew up in Jonesboro.

Yeah.
658 churches, that's a lot.
You got to work with 1% of 'em.
But the implication, I mean,even to work with 10% of them
who would be willing to stepinto this space could really
be, I don't know, this isnot my area of expertise, but
it feels like that couldbe pretty transformative in
our region around housing.
Because I'm curious, likewhen you think about one
church and the number of maybehousing units that they're

(29:52):
going to build and I realizeit may vary, but it like,
is there a range in there?
Like one church could build20 housing units, or how
do we think about that andmaybe what the potential
for this program could be?
I

think that's one thing we've tried
to think about a lot.
Especially knowingin the background.
So of course all of theoutreach and building a
leadership team around thisbuilding with professionals
developing curriculum.
We had 42 volunteer workshopinstructors that came
in and presented all theeducational content working
with six different churchesand site specific project

(30:25):
specific development.
And their sites rangedeverything from 2.1 acres to, I
think 11 acres was the largestproperty that we worked with.
And then looking at all thedifferent scales of things
that we might do on each ofthose, what's most appropriate.
And I think in affordablehousing, what is appropriate
is a conversation that'sreally important to have.

(30:48):
As far as the potentialfor this somewhat in the
background we were fortunateto partner with the
Centers for Businessand Economic Research at
the University ofArkansas to help us
identify faith owned land.
Our project was specific toBenton and Washington counties,
certainly scalable replicable,but at the same time, just

(31:10):
knowing how much vacant land isavailable in our communities.
That could be housingWhen we see escalating land
cost and it is in a capitalisteconomy, we understand
that most people aren'tlooking to give away land.
But at the same time when wefind those landowners who are

(31:30):
not looking for a profit maybe arevenue stream and capitalizing
it on the best way that theycan, but not necessarily just
a cash profit there is a lotof potential in northwest
Arkansas, we've identifiedover seven square miles of land
I think there's somewherein the neighborhood of 1600
individual parcels owned bythese 650 plus organizations.

(31:54):
And I think our nextstep of this process in
identifying potential, wejust recently partnered
with Acres in Fayetteville.
They're gonna help us takeour data from CBER and really
start building the layersto zoom in and identify,
faith organizations that arelocated in neighborhoods that
might be high potential foraffordable housing development.

(32:17):
Just knowing what isthe affordability index?
What is the housingand transportation
costs and the AMI withinthat neighborhood.
What's within a walkable10 or 15 minute range?
Are you near trails in schoolsand stores and healthcare?
All of the things that makesomewhere livable, especially
for someone of limited meanssomeone that might have a

(32:37):
limited income and maybethey don't afford a car, or
they are extremely low incomein their, they're needing
access to that communityfor any number of resources.
What faith organizations canwe identify and then how do
we organize that outreachto connect with them?

(32:57):
Is it.
as organic Asit was the first time
around where this churchhas a lot of land.
What are they thinking aboutthe about doing with it?
And we just connect with them.
Or is it something that wecan really build capacity
where we can start to builda precedent of this is what
faith organizations aredoing in our communities.
And you could dothis too, right?

(33:18):
You have this land, thisisn't an appropriate context
for affordable housing.
This is a way you can haveimpact and not all churches are
gonna be prepared to do that.
I've connected with so manymany are just at capacity in
what they're already doing.
They're already doing so much.
They don't have thecapacity to take on a
project like this'cause it's a lot.
But at the same time, Ithink a lot of them are

(33:40):
tinkering with the idea, orat least they're starting to.
And hopefully those ideascan grow I really am
hopeful that we can, bringmore churches into the
educational component.
That's somethingthat we've talked
about as a leadership team Justhow can we advocate for this
and help people understandthis is a really huge impact.

(34:01):
There's a lot that can be done.
And you're notworking alone, right?
We have, even just inULI, within Northwest
Arkansas, we have over260 members in the real estate
industry that you know, aremembers of ULI because they
believe in that mission.
So how can we connect youto the resources and the
people you need to helpyou with your project?

For these churches when they think
about these projectsare these projects benefiting
people that are in theirown congregation, or
is this community wide?
how does that work?
Is there a consensus onmaybe the best way that
some of those churchesare thinking about that?

I would say, just like with almost any of
the other missions that wehave encountered in the last
year with these six churchesthis is not about only
helping people within theircongregations or any sort of
indoctrination or anythinglike that It is about who needs
help and how can we help them.
They're looking we ask themspecifically to think about

(34:54):
who are you building forbecause that ties into your
why and we'll help you withthe what, where, and how.
And every one of the churches weworked with had a very distinct
identity of whothey really wanted to target
in their housing projects.
Whether it was workforce earnersand community servants, like
policemen or firefighters.

(35:16):
One of the churches wasspecifically looking
for young workforce,families and workforce,
first time home buyers.
They actually are lookingat, home purchasing, like
home buying, not rentals.
some of them werelooking at more of the
populations thatthey're serving in their
food pantries, which iscertainly reasonable.
They see these people every day.

(35:37):
I think one of the importantconversations that we've had
too are the senior population.
There are a lot of agingcongregations and there are
very few resources in northwestArkansas for senior housing.
And we see, we see wherethis like loneliness epidemic
is causing a lot of healthissues for our seniors.

(36:01):
But then at the same time,they're struggling with
housing affordability.
So they weretargeting groups that
they're familiar with.
And yes, if they can help peoplewithin their congregation,
that's certainly something thatis important to all of them.
Obviously we we worked withthe Marshallese community the
AJRD United Church of Christ.
There's no question theircommunity is in desperate

(36:24):
need of immediate housing.
And they have been for many,as long as they've been
migrating here, they're movinghere for a higher quality of
life or this idea of higherquality of life And many
of them are working in ourlocal industries and they're
really struggling financially.
A lot of them areliving in motels.
How can we as a community seethat need and recognize that

(36:48):
yes, this church is workingspecifically for people in their
church and in their community.
But that wasn't typical.
A lot of the churches thatwe were working with were
looking at the broader contextof demographics or people
that they wanted to serve.

In listening to you, I can't help
but think about theseare real people with real
faces with real communities.
It, as I listened to you itfeels like it's hard not to
come face to face overtly withjust some of the real systemic
problems in our community.
And I'm curious how thatenters into this conversation
around really churchesand ULI, who's stepping

(37:26):
in to help en enablethose to really take
on what sounds like somereal systemic issues, not
yes, around housing, butalso around what it means to
belong here, what home lookslike, labor, affordability.
This goes, sounds likeit goes way beyond simply
making sure someone'sgot a roof over their head.

I think it does, and I think that's
where the perspective of thechurches is so
important because theysee that every day.
I think there is such.
A broadgap in what is available.
just looking at yes,the cost of housing, but the
cost of living andhow can how do we

(38:10):
as a community, as nonprofitorganization, as a real estate
development industry how dowe really address those issues
that have a long-term impact?
I think that's one of thethings I, that the churches
recognize, their foodpantries, their utility
assistance their warmingshelters in the winter

(38:31):
those are all very importantmissions and they are
meeting immediate needs thatdramatically impact someone's
life in a moment or in a day.
Providing housingstability for those same
people is an impact fora much longer, it's
a much greater impactover a longer time.

(38:54):
And I think they understandthat this is an opportunity
to make a lasting impact insome of the things that they
are wanting to see happen.
And that's really important.
I think that's certainlyan impact that ULI
seeks in terms of transformationand understanding that
communities evolve overtime and how do we build

(39:14):
those to be sustainable.
Looking at the economicand environmental impact of
those things, but knowingthat's a decision over time.
And I think that's where housingcomes into play that it's.
The metrics are very clear.
The impact of housingstability on children's
outcomes on someoneexperiencing childhood

(39:35):
poverty or food insecurity.
Housing stability providesthat foundational basis of
higher educational outcomesand social and economic
mobility that other thingscan certainly play a role.
But having that foundation,believing that maybe housing is
a human right and maybe housingis something obviously every

(39:56):
person needs that how do weaddress that as a community,
whether that's in policies orjust working together
towards that common goal.
I do think forwhat we are doing.
And even just going backto the suggestion that
this isn't about ideology,it's collaboration.
It's finding the peoplewho really wanna do this

(40:18):
kind of work but then alsowant to work together.
I think it's more important thatwe're building these networks
and these broader networksand examples of, you might,
maybe you're building tinyhomes, maybe you're building
multi multifamily housing.
Maybe you're doing this,someone else is doing this too.
How can we worktogether to do that?
And I think that capacitybuilding within our communities
is essential to really seeingthis have a long term impact.

mike. (40:41):
Okay.
Listening to you talk about thisidea that housing should
be available to everyone.
I've heard people talk aboutthis idea of affordable
housing as this idea ofcritical infrastructure,
and I'm curious how you viewthat
How would you frame, or how doyou think about this idea of
affordable housing within thatcontext where we're thinking

(41:02):
about housing as infrastructure?

I think I would probably I think
you have to go back to thesense of what I said earlier
about Housing is personal.
Home is personal.
Where you live atwhatever age you're
in right For achild where you live
determines where you go toschool determines who you
play with after school.
Right?
That's your neighborhood,that's your community.

(41:25):
I think that can be saidof anyone where they live has
an impact on their life andon their quality of life.
What we're seeing nowin our society, which is
starting to or at least iscausing a lot of problems,
is the fact that people arehaving to make really difficult
choices about where they livebecause of the cost, and it is

(41:47):
impacting every other aspectof their quality of life.
So if I'm having to live.
30 miles from my job, not onlyis that probably costing me X
percentage of my income andtransportation costs, it's also
costing me time with my family.
And I think what we seein affordable housing as

(42:09):
infrastructure is justunderstanding that the
value of mixed incomecommunities and
diverse communitieseconomically benefits everyone.
And it may not be a metricthat you can point to as a
statistic, but I think at thesame time you can also look at

(42:30):
the fact that there's proveninstances of failure, right?
When you look athousing that has
been concentratedFor example, a lot of subsidized
projects that are concentrated.
Generational povertyThere's so many examples
of where that has failed,right Because there is a

(42:51):
level of influence in notbeing able to get out of
that, not being able toescape that circumstance.
And how do you, how do you proveto say, I hate to
say how do you prove itbut how do you make it
really understandableto people in communities who are
maybe anti affordable housingdevelopment or they don't
necessarily understand differentranges of affordability

(43:13):
and what that means?
How do you make itreally clear that
actually not only increasesa community's overall
economic value that increaseseveryone's quality of life.
There's more awareness,there's more education,
there's more diversity,there's more acceptance.
There's all of these thingsthat may be more qualitative
in understanding how they'rebenefiting, but at the, but

(43:36):
they realize it's a good thing.

I think within this conversation, so
often when we think aboutthis idea of affordable housing
our expectations really go inmany ways to our cities, right?
To help us solve this problem.
I'm not hearing you talkabout the city's involvement,
maybe outside of zoningin any way, shape or form.
I'm curious, within thisprogram, within this type

(43:59):
of model, what is a city ormunicipality's role here?
Do they have one?

I think they definitely do, and I know
we haven't gone into a lotof the policy discussions.
And part of that UI is not alobbyist we can advocate for
policy changes that positivelyimpact communities, but
we don't lobby for policychanges specifically
within a community thoughwithin a city specifically.
I think understanding theprocesses for nonprofits to

(44:27):
get homes on the ground isreally important that there's
some sort of public privatepartnership and streamlining
some of those processes.
Lightning, some of theregulations in terms of.
Allowing churches to buildon their property by Right.
As long as it'smissionally aligned.
Theyshould have the theoretically
they should have theopportunity to build by.

(44:50):
We do see policies likethat across our nation.
We've seen it's calledthe YIGBY movement.
I don't know if you're familiar.
So you've heard of nimby, right?
Not in My Backyard.
So YIGBY is "Yes, inGod's backyard." Oh, wow.
And there has been legislationpassed in various states
around the country.
California, Colorado,Washington State, I believe

(45:12):
Tennessee and North Carolina.
I've also seen some policychanges that are specific to
how churches have developmentrights on their own land,
as long as those programsare missionally aligned.
What we, what is reallyinteresting is while we're.
This is seemingly newin northwest Arkansas.
This is not a new concept.
Churches have been housingpeople for hundreds of years

(45:33):
all over the world and they'redoing it in our country.
They've, there's many examples.
We've tried to provideprecedent studies and case
studies for the churches thatwe've worked with just to
say, Hey, this is happening.
This has happened in yourdenomination across the country.
And and it can happen here.
I think building awarenessof what some of the best
practices would be and what,some of the low hanging fruit

(45:55):
is and what policies can changeto accommodate more housing.
But if cities are seriouslyadvocating that they believe in
affordable housing and they'renot making some of these common
sense changes to their policies,I think that, there's a real
opportunity to do that and makesome of those changes to get

(46:16):
more housing on the ground.

a as you've worked with these churches,
and you're starting to seesome of these maybe projects
really defined at this pointI'm curious maybe if you could
describe one or two of thoseso we can get an idea of what
may actually come out of this.

Absolutely.
I think, like I said, oneof the things I've been so
excited about working in thisprogram is that the churches
we worked with this year haveall very different visions.
They're veryspecific to what they
wanna see happen, which isintentional, but at the same
time, they're working onprojects that are appropriate
to their place.

(46:51):
And of course, as a designer,as a community developer I think
that is also really important.
Looking at some of theexamples I can think of.
First Christian is one that Ithink has a really unique model
a really feasible proposal.
I would really love to see themadvance that project if they're
at all, if it's at all possible.
And as a, as they'reable to secure financing.

(47:12):
But they're proposingsubdividing lots They have
purchased a one acre lotjust south of their church.
There is an existing homealready on it, I think they've
used as a rental before.
They're looking atsubdividing that property.
It's nestled in a neighborhoodnot far from downtown Rogers.
Really great neighborhoodresidential area,

(47:35):
near schools near trails,near stores, near jobs.
They would like tosubdivided into 12 lots and
build workforce housing.
Single family homes butoperate the project as
a community land trust.
And where that benefits themand of course homeowners is that

(47:59):
allows for a sustainable lowcost over a long-term process.
They're actually lookingat pre-approved plans,
housing plans, and theyhave 12 independent homes
drawn on their site plan.
Again, they're not they'respecifically designed
not to face the streetThey're facing each other,

(48:20):
which also allows a senseof community building.
And then of course, they're.
Accessible to everythingthat's around them.
They're right on a trail.
They're on a major street.
That's one that I definitelythink is very feasible.
I'm also really excitedabout the work that St.
James Missionary Baptist islooking at in Fayetteville.
They have such a historicpresence in Fayetteville and

(48:44):
in where their land is located.
They actually have two sites.
So they own the historicchurch that's on North
Street and they have severalacres that are around the
church's currently parking.
And then they also own theiroriginal church building, which
is on Willow Avenue in SouthFayetteville's, just across

(49:04):
the street from the WillowHeights housing neighborhood,
and they own around fiveacres just to the southeast
of their outreach center.
They are looking at buildinghousing on both properties.
The project on North Streetis going to be in conjunction

(49:24):
with a family life centerwith their church that
would be accessible bycongregation members.
They're wanting to housesome of their mission
programs out of thatas well as a community center
for the surrounding community,but then provide town homes
along Levert on the SouthFayetteville property, which
has an incredible history.

(49:45):
And MinisterJones can tell you all about it.
It is really interesting to,to learn how they acquired
this land over 160 years agoand have maintained it all
of this time, but the valueof that to their community.
They manage an outreach center.
Now this now the SquireJahagen Outreach Center.
They're feeding anywherefrom 800 to a thousand

(50:06):
families a week, especiallyin some of the holiday times.
She would like to build acommunity of housing across
the street that supports themiddle income from people
who maybe they're livingin subsidized housing.
They get a job,they stable job they
price themselves outof subsidized housing.

(50:27):
But then the next step ismarket rate, whatever an
apartment costs in Fayettevilleand there's no middle ground.
St. James would like tohelp provide that bridge.
But then also integratewithin their community
community gardens andcommunity opportunities for
workforce and labor that theycan start to really build a

(50:50):
community in that location.
And I just, it'sjust really exciting.
It will support the functionsof their outreach center with
fresh fruits and vegetables,but then it will also support
the quality of life of thepeople who are living there and
help with that stabilization.

Yeah.
That's really beautiful tolisten to and such a Yeah.
Historic and meaningfulplace to see the community
and the church be a part of.
Yeah, not only bringinghousing affordability or
helping to maintain it, butalso Yeah, to really think
forward around what does itmean to build community and
hold community in that space.
So really beautifulto hear that.

(51:24):
So in,with these maybe potential
projects that are comingforward I'm curious
what's the future ofthis program look like?
And you we're gonna havethe chance to do this
again and invite morechurches into this space.

Ideally, yes.
I think there is a lot ofmomentum, a lot of enthusiasm.
We've built a really strongnetwork of people who want to
be involved who want to see,obviously more housing, but
also understand the missiondriven collaboration that is
really key behind this program.
And we wanna move that forward.
Of course, we want to beable to continue supporting

(51:57):
these churches as they'readvancing their projects.
Knowing that we've connectedthem with a lot of industry
professionals, but how canwe continue to introduce them
to new resources and new newideas as they're looking to
move this into pre-developmentand pre-construction.
I think one of the primaryways we will do that is keeping

(52:21):
that connection strong notjust in the kinda comradery
that they've built among thesix of them, the six of them,
but how do we as we continueto network with other churches
and other organizations, howdo we bring them all together?
And also knowingthat our network within ULI
is very interested in seeingsomething like this happen.

(52:44):
I do think those connectionsare gonna be really important.
I think the expectationis that we will
probably continue to maketweaks within our program design
and our educational contentand some of those things.
And I, we've got some reallygreat feedback from the churches
who participated this yearon how to connect with them
more directly, but then alsojust general suggestions on

(53:07):
resources that they may stillneed and things that maybe
we didn't quite hit the mark.
So just continue toevolve and work on that.
Like I said, we have anincredible leadership committee
around this program that I'mjust in awe to work with.
So we'll continuebuilding capacity and
building those networks.
We are planning to still diveinto the research a little

(53:27):
more and better understand,what are things that we
can do more immediately?
Are there projects that areready to go that we're just
not aware of that we can reallyhelp to get off the ground
and kinda start building someof those local precedents.
But yes, absolutely.
In the meantime, we'll continueoutreach building network,
building databaseof professionals and
organizations thatwanna build housing.

I love hearing that I'm curious, with this
program now completed likewhat do you see as possible
for the future ofaffordable housing here
in Northwest Arkansas?

I think I'm really hopeful to see it
more Cross sector one ofthe earlier questions you
were asking of, okay, you'rebringing groups together
that wouldn't necessarilyotherwise work together.
I wanna see more of that.
it's not all about thefor-profit developers and it's
not about the the scalablesingle family neighborhoods that

(54:19):
we've historically seen thatjust take more and more land.
But what can we doon a smaller scale?
What can we do incrementallymore locally in our communities,
smaller scale development,and how can we build capacity
for those public privatepartnerships so that maybe we
do see cities partnering tounderstand what collaborative

(54:40):
development can do, or we do seewe do see more opportunities for
school districts who also ownland in some of our communities
who, what are some of theseresources that we can start
to model to build affordablehousing where it is needed
most with the people who wannado it for the right reason.

I have a couple questions that I ask at the end
of every conversationAnd one of them is
around our fears.
And I ask that because I thinkit helps to normalize that
there are concerns that wehave or give space for that.
When you think about all thiswork and this cohort and what
looks to be a really promisingfuture for this I am curious,
what are your fears for this?

I I think one one of the biggest things that
concerned me is that churchesmight get in over their head.
I think that's one of thethings, knowing that we are
working with organizationswith limited resources a
lot of times, and a oftenlimited staff, right?
They're already at capacity.
And how do we scale projects?
When I say appropriate,I, it really is

(55:41):
important to considerwhat is appropriate.
Because that'snot just responsive to their
capacity or their financialability or their long-term
sustainability that'sappropriate to what they're
really capable of pulling off.
who, who is in, who isrunning the project long term.

(56:01):
and it has to be,it has to be a team.
It really has to bea team of people.
It can't just be one or twovisionaries that have
a, an idea to do this.
'Cause they can get in andover their head really quickly.
Also they have to understandthat it's not a fast, it's
not an overnight thing.
It's not an overnight fix.
It's not an overnight project.
It's gonna take timeyears sometimes.

(56:22):
And that's just part of it.
I think working in design anddevelopment, we can take that
for granted because it's notsurprising that a project might
take two or three or five years.
And maybe churches feelthe same, but they are
also working in immediateneeds every single day.
And they're working in alittle different capacity.
So something like thisis not meeting an

(56:44):
immediate need.
It's meeting a long-termneed and it's gonna
take a long-term effort.
I think another fear I do havea little bit is just what is
going to happen when they dohit a roadblock And
are they going to stopand abandon everything?
or are they gonna beable to move forward?
Nimbyism is a real thing.

(57:05):
People who don't wanna seethings change, they don't want
their neighborhoods to change.
This is the way thingshave always been done.
It's one of the most dangerousphrases in our world.
And I think just knowing thatthey're gonna run into neighbors
that don't wanna seethis happen, they're
going to, they're gonnahit roadblocks where,

(57:25):
oh this isn't allowed by zoningOr, oh, you're in a floodplain.
It's gonna take however longwe are in a sewage problem
that's going to delay everythingfor X number of years.
how do they keep that momentumand belief in what they're
doing knowing that thereare going to be obstacles?
And I don't thinkthat's anything new to
them in a lot of ways.

(57:46):
I think they probably runagainst that all the time.
But moving into realestate development is
a little bit different.
As we've mentioned, it'sjust a different animal.
And so how do you maintain thatmomentum knowing that there's
going to be some setbacks and itmight be two steps forward and
one step back for a long time.
So don't get discouragedand keep the faith and

(58:08):
keep moving forward.
And don't give up

I'm curious if you want to talk at all about
maybe your personal connectionto this work and to this
program at just in listeningto you and the course
at this conversation.
It, I don't know this doesn'tfeel like a job that
you're talking about.
This feels like somethingthat really is at the heart
of who you are as a person.
And I don't know.
Do you wanna talk about that?

I don't know.
I, I grew up with a single mom.
And an older brother withserious mental health issues.
And, we were oftenstruggling financially.
it was not uncommon in any way,but at the same time it was
I always knew I was loved, Ithink I've mapped out at one
time, I think I moved 13 timesbefore I was 17 years old.

(58:55):
And for one, onereason or another whether
that was we were evictedor rent went up or we
needed to move to anotherplace for whatever reason.
Yeah, I moved a lotand I think where there
are metrics abouthousing stability, I was
always one that, likeI said I I've also always
bloomed wherever I was planted.

(59:17):
So a new neighborhoodto me meant new friends,
new Creek to play inNew Street to ride my bike
on It wasn't ever um, ahindrance or a problem, it
was just a new experience.
And mom was doingthe best she could.
And I always knew that.
yeah I grew up knowing thatI had to be resourceful and
I learned at a really youngage that you kinda just

(59:40):
gotta do the best you can.
And sometimesthat's all you can do.
And like I said I knew Iwas loved and I had security
in that and I didn'thave to worry about that.
My background personally,professionally, of course,
I went to school here, gota degree in architecture.
If I had to do it all overagain, I would still go
to school here and get adegree in architecture.
It's one of the mostbroad fields with so many

(01:00:02):
opportunities that just reallyopened my mind to anything.
The ability to travel,the ability to see the
world a different wayof seeing the world and
how to make a new world.
It was just a reallygreat experience.
Lived in South Arkansas fora long time which I don't
know if you're familiar withSouth Arkansas at all, but a

mike rusch. (01:00:20):
little bit.

candi adams. (01:00:21):
Yeah, very, we live in kind of our little
Shangri Law in Benton andWashington County, but it's
such an anomaly to the other73 counties at the state.
And again, I bloomed towhere I was planted, took
a long time 'cause I wastransplant and takes a
long time to build trust.
But it was a great place to be.

mike rusch. (01:00:35):
Candi, thank you for sharing that.
I know that's personal,but I in so many ways just
listening to you you can Youcan hear that personal maybe
connection and that passionthat comes through and sounds
like it really motivatesthe way this work is done.
And and o one of the lastquestions I ask is this
thread that we've tried toto Really tie through all of
these conversations in thisidea of community wholeness.

(01:00:58):
And so I'd love to askyou, when I say that word,
wholeness, what is, yeah,what is community wholeness?
What does wholenesslook like in this work?
Based on what you've seenthrough this experience?

I don't know.
I don't know if I've ever reallythought about it like that
Wholeness in this work.
I don't know I think liliving the way I did growing
up one thing I can say andthis is much to the credit,
my mom, because she just,she always worked so hard, but
we never lost hope, and I thinkthat's one thing that kind
of keeps me driving even now.

(01:01:35):
So working in a nonprofitsetting, working in a
mission-driven setting,that hope is a key element
in everything that we do.
Just because you do wanna thinkthat what you're doing has
value, it's making an impact andit's creating a positive
change for the peoplethat you're working with.
And I think in termsof wholeness, bringing

(01:02:00):
more people tothe table around an issue
There should be space atthe table for everybody.
And I think that is areally important thing
to get any of this kindof work off the ground.
It's connecting the peoplewho not only need to be
involved but wanna beinvolved or maybe even just
be curious to be involved,but how do you make the

(01:02:21):
connections that are necessaryto build collaboratively?
Because that is ultimatelynobody ever does anything alone.
I think.
There's a tendencyto give credit or look
at somebody who's leadingsomething or something,
even in architecture, right?
Who designed it.
There were hundreds ofpeople involved in getting

(01:02:43):
something finished.
And I think that isreally important.
Building our collaborativenetworks, building capacity
around a, a goal of thegreater good is such an
important thing, but itdoesn't work without hope.

mike rusch. (01:02:57):
I'll take that definition of wholeness any day.
So thank you for Yeah Thank youfor being a light
in a space that we maybedidn't even know was possible.
And I'm just I just solove hearing about this
program and the work andthose that participated.
Thank you for being a catalystto help try to bring this type
of idea and these types ofour partnerships to a solution

(01:03:20):
that by all rights we'restill trying to figure out
as a community how to solve.
And so I think listening toyou it's definitely hopeful
to see what's possible, thatwhen people come together as
a community, that there arepaths forward and that there
are creative, collaborativeways that people can focus
on what it looks like to carefor your community in the way
that it needs to be cared for.

(01:03:41):
And Candi, I just, I'mhuge fan and thank you
for what you're doing.
Huge fan of ULI andthe entire team there.
Just incredible inincredible work.
And I hope that this programcontinues on and just continues
to pour into our communitymore housing and beyond
that the more relationshipand more community building.
And thank you.
Please keep us informedon what's happening.

(01:04:04):
We'd love to check in again and.
Yeah, I hear about all thegreat things you're doing.
So Candi, thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me.
And thanks for interestin the program.
I think it's really importantto advocate what the potential
of this can be here and justhelp organizations, but also
industry professionals awarethat, there's an opportunity
here to work together.

mike rusch. (01:04:26):
Yeah, if there's any churches that are listening
I just be warned this is gonnabe a program that I'm gonna
ask them about because yeah,this is a really beautiful
expression of what it lookslike to be a community
and to be a congregationthat cares for people.
Candi, thank you.
It's been a joy.

Thank you.

mike. (01:04:43):
Well, a huge thank you to Candi and the entire team
at ULI for sharing the FaithfulFoundations program with us.
I sit here, processingwhat we just heard.
I keep coming back to something.
There are churches willing tostep into systemic problems
to find systemic solutions.
Six of them said yesto this first cohort.
They raised their handsand they said, we wanna
learn how to do this.
We want to be a part ofsolving this problem.

(01:05:05):
And that makes me wonder,can others follow?
Because six churchesis just 1% of all the
churches in our region.
Is it reasonable to believe thatfaith communities could become
a meaningful part of solvingthe affordable housing crisis
here in Northwest Arkansas?
I mean, is it really possible?
And if it is, that changesthings on more levels than
just providing housing?
It changes how we thinkabout who's responsible

(01:05:27):
for community wellbeing.
It changes how wethink about the role of
faith in public life.
It changes how we think aboutwhat it means to be a neighbor.
What could 10% or 60 churchesdo, and what impact could they
make in serving those at themargins or in the shadows who
are simply wanting a placeto belong in this community?
I am cautious, but I could dareto believe that maybe this is

(01:05:49):
one way that congregations couldlive out the call to love their
neighbor in the most tangible,most needed way possible.
Not just through a food pantryor a warming shelter, though
those matter deeply, but throughsomething as fundamental, as
stable place to call home.
Thank you to ULI forcreating this program and
believing that it could work.
Thank you to thechurches who said yes.

(01:06:10):
And thank you to the WaltonFamily Foundation for
providing the funding thatmade this training possible.
I can't speak for anybody else,but you've made me a believer
that this is a viable partof the solution to not only
address affordable housing, butto see people at the margins
cared for, acknowledged, andprovided a chance to live
into the wholeness of whatour community is pursuing.
And so in our next episode,I'm gonna sit with one of the

(01:06:31):
pastors of the churches thatparticipated in this cohort to
hear from their perspective howthis worked and what it meant
to the mission of their church.
And for all of those that havelistened, I wanna say thank you.
I wanna say thank you for beingthe most important part of
what our community is becoming.
This is the underview,an exploration in the
shaping of our place.

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