Getting curious in our neighborhood

I'd like to tell you a story about what the Holy Spirit is doing in our neighborhood. I don't know the end of this story yet, because it's still happening. But I am curious about what the Holy Spirit is doing, and how we at Calvin Church might be able to join the Spirit's work in this time and place.

The story starts with the Holland Home at Fulton Manor. Several members of Calvin Church have lived here in the past, and our former pastor served as a chaplain there. Holland Home doesn't own this property anymore but sold the building to be used as affordable housing.

Another beginning to the story is our relationship-building with the neighbors around our church. When members of the Community Engagement Team walked door-to-door, several neighbors told us that they loved Eastown and were concerned that housing prices were going up and it was becoming a less affordable place to live. They saw some of their neighbors becoming displaced by rising housing costs, and they knew that homelessness is a problem in Grand Rapids. When we meet neighbors at our events, like the pancake breakfast and the movie night, we heard similar concerns about the lack of affordable housing in our neighborhood. If we join our concerns as a church to the concerns of the neighborhood, affordable housing becomes our concern too.

We learned last year about the affordable housing efforts that are underway at the old Fulton Manor. The former Van Andel Pavilion, which was once a memory-care facility at the corner of Carlton and Fulton, has been repurposed by Community Rebuilders to provide housing and social services for up to 40 individuals. That building is now called Carlton Lofts. The main Fulton Manger building at 1460 Fulton has been repurposed by Hope Network to provide mixed-income and permanent supportive housing in 118 units which has 1-3 bedrooms each. That building is now called Eastpointe Commons.

How does this connect with us? Because of the changes that these housing developments will bring to Eastown, Community Rebuilders and Hope Network wanted to do some outreach. They asked the Eastown Community Association to arrange meetings with people who already live in the neighborhood in order to answer questions and build relationships. Our Community Connector, Heather Conklin, heard about this and offered to host one of the meetings at Calvin Church. Several of you provided hospitable snacks and asked thoughtful questions at that meeting last November. Another meetings was a St. Thomas Catholic School. The housing developers were worried that parents of children at St. Thomas would not want low-income housing in their backyard. But what they found instead was that these families were eager for a new partnership with a diverse set of neighbors. They saw it as an opportunity to teach their children about showing Christ's love and hospitality.

So, together with the folks at St. Thomas, we have been getting curious about further opportunities that these new housing developments will bring. Community Rebuilders invited several of us to help set up the new housing units, so about 10 of us from Calvin Church spent a Friday morning there in last November, cleaning, organizing, and putting the finishing touches on the small apartments. A few of us went back in early December for the official ribbon cutting, a wonderful celebratory event.

What's next? We are hopeful, and we are curious. Community Rebuilders and Hope Network wonder if there will be opportunities for churches to pack welcome baskets, or to come to the buildings to provide supportive programming for residents. It's too early to say how any of this will take shape, but we will keep paying attention and remaining curious about what the Holy Spirting is doing through all these connections. We know that God is at work in our neighborhood, and God is at work in our own hearts.

--Pastor Rebecca