San Diego, California · International Model
YIGBY: Yes In God's Back Yard
What this story helps churches see
Under-utilised church property can become part of a faithful response to affordable housing need.
YIGBY — Yes In God's Back Yard — turned NIMBY on its head. The San Diego coalition of faith communities activates abundant, under-utilised church properties for affordable housing, helping congregations build to a 'triple bottom line': mission-driven housing, environmental sustainability, and the church's own financial well-being.
The acronym is the argument. NIMBY — Not In My Back Yard — has, for decades, described the residents and neighbourhood associations who oppose affordable housing being built near them. The YIGBY coalition in San Diego asked a simple question: what if the back yard offering itself was a church?
The process
YIGBY's stated work is "to address San Diego's housing crisis by activating abundant, under-utilized faith community properties suitable for multi-family residential projects." That sentence carries a specific observation: most cities, San Diego included, contain large amounts of under-used land sitting on church properties — surface car parks, oversized halls, roof space, partial sites.
A congregation that owns such a property already holds the most expensive piece of any housing development: the land. The work YIGBY does is helping congregations see that asset clearly and then walk through the structural questions of partnership, development, and ownership.
The framing is theological. YIGBY's vision statement explicitly names the goal:
Be a resource to faith communities that want to use their surplus land to develop much needed affordable housing … to help congregations create a triple bottom line where they are providing mission driven housing solutions, using environmentally sustainable materials and contributing to their own financial well-being.
What was built
YIGBY operates at the coalition level rather than building units directly. The outputs are:
- A reframe — from NIMBY to YIGBY — that has spread well beyond San Diego.
- Activated faith-community properties developed for affordable housing.
- A triple bottom line model that connects mission, environment, and financial sustainability for the church.
What they learned
The YIGBY framing matters in a South African context for one specific reason. South Africa carries the legacy of apartheid spatial planning in every suburb. Churches in those suburbs sit on land they were granted, allowed, or able to buy under planning regimes designed around exclusion.
YIGBY's reframe — "yes in God's back yard" — gives congregations in those contexts a clear thing to commit to. The model assumes the church will hold its land. It assumes the church wants its property to do more than worship for a few hours a week. And it assumes the financial structure can serve all three commitments at once: mission, ecology, and the church's own future.
Sources
- Powell, C. (2021), Fostering a Praxis of Spatial Justice in Suburban Churches, MTh thesis — international church-housing models. Download PDF
- YIGBY San Diego — primary movement website.
- Fischel, W. (2001), The Homevoter Hypothesis — referenced in Powell 2021 for the NIMBY framing.
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