What's a land-locked urban congregation to do with their treasured property reserved for overflow parking spaces? If you're Mayflower Community UCC in south Minneapolis, you donate it as part of a project to build affordable housing.

Creekside Commons, a 30-unit apartment building located next to the church, will provide moderate rent housing for families and is already under construction. The project is the result of collaboration between Mayflower and the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation (PCNF), also of Minneapolis.

The vision for Creekside Commons began in 2006 when Mayflower offered to donate land valued at over $500,000 to PCNF in an effort to continue serving low-income and working families in their neighborhood.

Mayflower's popular "Friday Morning Out" child care co-op program - along with scouting, a nursery school and PFLAG - have been mainstays of ministry in its Tangletown neighborhood, as it is known locally because of its winding hillside streets.

"We're a congregation that likes to study and discuss what's going on in the world and in our city," says Team Lead Minister, the Rev. Sarah Campbell. "In the last few years, we've learned a lot about how hard-working people in Minneapolis are struggling and often failing to get by, and that the lack of affordable housing is a big part of the problem."

Average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the city is nearly $950, meaning that families need to earn almost $38,000 per year, roughly $18 per hour, to stay within the safe zone of spending only 30 percent of their income on housing. More than half the jobs in Minnesota currently pay less than $31,000 per year.

Mayflower's study concluded that high density housing provides better access to public transit and is more economical. They learned that "workforce housing" projects improve urban areas rather than lower property values or increase crime as some in their neighborhood feared.

"Throughout our scripture, from Isaiah to Revelation, is woven the bright gold thread of the beloved city," says Campbell. "God's people are to repair the city, believe in the city, dream of the city, where one day all shall live peaceably and justly."

Campbell is proud of the congregation's united action to donate land and take an active role in developing the program. "This decision for workforce housing on our land was worked through at every level of our congregation, including the youth group. People were very well educated about it before the vote was taken at our congregational meeting, in which well over 95 percent voted in the affirmative," she says.

That isn't to say that all Mayflower and PCNF's plans went forward seamlessly. A neighborhood petition was circulated in an attempt to block the project from starting. The church again kicked into high gear and with the support of partners educated neighbors on the project and ultimately won over detractors.

Creekside Commons construction progress. Photo provided by the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation.

Creekside Commons is only one of the projects currently underway with the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation through their Congregational Partnership Initiative. A non-profit organization founded by Minneapolis' Plymouth Congregational Church, PCNF is the administrative and grant-gaining arm for these community projects. It also maintains legal ownership of and board membership in its projects.

Lee Blons, executive director of PCNF, describes a changing outlook in the housing market. "Economically, the need is skyrocketing and that changes peoples perspective," she says.

"I think there is now a broader sense of how we are all in need, how we are all subject to trends in the markets," says Blons of the project's necessity. "There is deep poverty creeping into the area and Creekside Commons' housing in one key to preventing its spread."

The project's anticipated cost of $8.6 million was covered by Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), including a corporate investment in the credits of $5.4 million, and $1.2 million in Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) funding from the City of Minneapolis, made possible by the 2009 economic stimulus bill.

Construction began in October 2009 and the project is expected to be completed in July 2010. Nearly 100 construction jobs will be created during the life of the project.

U.S. Senator and member of First Congregational UCC in Minneapolis, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), is an advocate of the project. "As our communities grow, so too does the demand for quality and affordable housing," she says. "I'm particularly proud that Creekside Commons is one of the first affordable housing developments to utilize the Tax Credit Assistance Program that I supported as part of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act."

In a report to PCNF, Campbell praised their partnership as beneficial not only to the community, but to Mayflower as a congregation, saying, "Mayflower dreams of building relationships with the residents, by helping with the computer lab, after school tutoring, refugee support and other creative ventures. We are studying the possibility of expanding our quality nursery school, which serves 100 families, into a quality early childhood education center with full time day care so that we might even better support the residents of Creekside as well as other families in our community."

"Congregations so often get internally focused, and they give lip-service to being connected to the community," says the Rev. Anita Bradshaw, board chair for the UCC's Office of General Ministries and minister-in-covenant at Mayflower UCC. "My hope is that what we've accomplished has already been part of the transformative process for us. I hope it continues to do that so Mayflower isn't just a place that serves its members, but is seen as a place that brings the gospel in concrete ways to our Minneapolis community."