YIGBY Movement in Evanston

Across the country, houses of worship are activating and joining what is becoming known as the YIGBY Movement (Yes, in God’s Back Yard). With approximately 100 churches within its boundaries, Evanston is ripe to join this movement. Joining Forces is working with Council Member Bobby Burns and the City’s Here to Stay Committee to make it happen.  ​

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What Is YIGBY?  
The YIGBY movement removes barriers and provides encouragement for houses of worship that want to use some of their land as sites for new affordable housing for people in need. Houses of worship typically join the YIGBY movement because they believe that using their available land in this way can fulfill an aspect of their moral mission. Not only can it serve their own members who may be struggling with housing costs, but it can also leave a long-term legacy for the house of worship within the community.  
  
Options for houses of worship to create affordable housing include development of accessory dwelling units (like coach houses) or two-flats in under-utilized parking lots, leasing or selling some of its land to a developer while retaining worship space, and even donating land to developers when a house of worship can no longer afford to keep its doors open.   
  
Support for Houses of Worship  
Joining Forces is working as part of the City of Evanston’s Here to Stay Committee, led by Councilmember Burns, with participation from the Community Development Department--to help local houses of worship explore whether and how they can be part of the solution to the affordable housing crisis. The major barriers that most houses of worship face in taking this type of action have primarily to do with cost and know-how—since creating affordable housing is both expensive and complicated.   
  
Cost-related barriers include having to pay for:   

• Mapping and analyzing available land,  
• Application fees that are related to the programs that often fund affordable housing development (like Low Income Housing Tax Credits),  
• Pre-development exploration and analysis,  
• Legal advice and help, before and after a development is deemed feasible.  

  
Other barriers come from not knowing how to:   

• Find developers who are familiar with this kind of work with houses of worship,  
• Find investors/donors who are interested in creating affordable housing, 
• Build on land that houses of worship occupy while following local zoning laws.  

  
The Here to Stay Committee is already working with several interested houses of worship to figure out what is possible on their land and to see how the City can eventually help to remove these barriers. Additionally, the Committee is looking to develop a model for this work that preserves the identity and honors the missions of each house of worship it works with.   

Needed Systemic Change  
While we can work with individual houses of worship to make change, we also need to work at the systems level, because the most significant barriers to the YIGBY movement are the existing zoning laws and development standards throughout the region that preserve the status quo. Since zoning laws are extremely rigid about what can be built where, Joining Forces will also be encouraging the City—and possibly even the State--to consider revising laws to allow houses of worship the flexibility they will need in order to use their land to increase housing affordability.​