Housing Justice

To live in Nashville is to understand the rising cost of housing. Long-time residents of Nashville are being displaced through a process called gentrification where the homes or apartments they rent are sold for the purpose of redevelopment, or they can no longer afford to remain in the homes they own due to rising property taxes. These residents lose their homes but also their communities and often their sense of belonging. Other residents remain, but live cost-burdened – paying 30% or more of their income for housing each month.

Some questions that may be stirring in you at this point are … isn’t this just a part of a city’s growth? Are you saying development is bad? Can’t these people just move somewhere else? 

Or you might be thinking — I have to live outside the city too.

Different world-views, life experiences and incomes will bring any of these questions, and others, to the forefront of our minds. But I challenge you to think of another question — what might the Bible have to say about the affordability of housing?

While the Bible does not explicitly say we must provide affordable housing for people, it does have some things to say about creating conditions that allow the poor (or people earning a lower income) to be able to provide for themselves. Leviticus 19:9-10 introduces a concept known as gleaning, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest…You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” The Old Testament Israelites lived in an agricultural society where property ownership and farming were how they earned a living. In these verses, God gives very clear instructions to property owners not to maximize every cent possible out of their land, but instead to leave a way for the poor to work and to provide for themselves by gathering some of the crop as well.

Given that most of us don’t live in an agricultural society today, how might we apply the principles of these verses to our current surroundings? I think one way in which we might apply the principle of gleaning is in the area of affordable housing. What if, as an individual, a developer decided not to maximize profit by charging market rent on each and every apartment unit, but instead, decided to designate a certain portion of the apartments he was building as affordable units? What if, as a community, a city decided that each new housing development being built in its boundaries must have a certain percentage of affordable units?

A counter argument might be, those developers and property owners work hard too, don’t they deserve to earn all the money that comes their way as a result of their hard work? (And if we’re honest, perhaps behind that question is maybe even a more personal question, don’t I deserve everything that I have as a result of my hard work?) 

James 1:17 has this to say, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father.” If we view everything we have as coming from God — our money, our health, and most of all, our salvation — then that has great potential to change our heart posture. That would make following Leviticus 19 and the principle of gleaning a little bit easier. And maybe that would lead to a form of housing justice, where people earning a lower income could afford to work and live and hopefully even flourish in the city they call home.

This principle goes beyond affordable housing though. Maybe you’re a business owner and the principle of gleaning can lead to higher wages for your employees. Or perhaps you can pay a little more and buy products made by an organization that employs survivors of human trafficking. However you apply it, the principle of gleaning can and should lead to greater flourishing for our neighbors.

Regardless of where you currently land on these topics, I would encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to whatever it is you may be feeling in your heart as you read this post. Whether or not we line up in all the potential applications of the principle is beside the point. The reality is, the biblical command of caring for the most vulnerable in our communities is one that every follower of Christ has both the privilege and responsibility to carry out.