Aslan Housing Foundation: Making a home for ministers in the Bay Area

As mortgage rates continue to increase the housing market is softening in most parts of the country. However, here in the Bay Area where the median sales price for a single-family home is $1,250,000  even with a slight dip, homeownership is out of reach for many including those working in full-time ministry. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment here is between $3000 and $4000, also challenging for many pastors and church staff members.

“The housing crisis here is affecting recruiting and retention in our churches. We need to create solutions to address the crisis to keep our pastors here.” - Nicole Bergeron, president & CEO of Aslan Housing Foundation.

According to Glassdoor, pastors in the Bay area earn an average annual income of $81,049. Input this salary into a home affordability calculator and you’ll find that these pastors can afford a home priced at $388,175. There’s just a handful of homes listed at this price in the region.

“At Peninsula Covenant Church we almost lost two very strategic hires who had been recruited from out of state because of the cost of housing here,” Bergeron recalls. “A group of us lay folks at the church decided to work on helping PCC figure out an approach to housing the staff.”

Bergeron and Aslan co-founder Doug Morton decided to be the change they wanted to see and founded Aslan in 2018 in response to the housing crisis and its impact on PCC staff members. 

Naming the organization Aslan was strategic as Bergeron explains, “Of course, Aslan is the Christ figure in the Narnia stories. We were sure the Christian community would recognize this evocative name. We adopted it because of Aslan’s benevolence, fierceness, and wisdom. To be operating in this kind of market we need to be wise, to be discerning, to be fierce, and to be ready to pounce.”

As a first step, we created criteria to prioritize staff needs. Then we decided to build.an equity share for the most senior staff at PCC who met a criteria the church had developed. “We found this to be a hard target for someone to actually shoot an arrow at,” says Bergeron. “So, we decided to instead build an inventory of homes to rent at below market prices. We own a handful of homes seven households occupy right now.”

As the organization evolved, they developed three core actions: coaching, discipling, and solving.  “We coach pastors about how to save for housing and how to get the most out of a housing allowance,” Bergeron notes.

“We disciple stakeholders, making sure people understand their pastors’ housing needs. We’ve found that congregations don’t realize just how low a pastor’s pay is and how challenging it is to find affordable housing.

“We’re encouraging people to help by renting their extra bedroom, their ADU (accessory dwelling unit), or if they have a second home, renting that to someone in ministry at a below market price.”

Aslan created Marketplace to match pastoral staff with available housing as Bergeron explains, “If someone has an ADU, a granny unit, a room, or a full home available where a pastor can live at below market rent -- still a fair amount of money -- they can list it on our marketplace.”

The organization is working to solve the housing crisis by managing property.  “We property manage homes for Christians who are willing to rent at below market. This doesn’t just solve for the pastors, but it creates a nice way for families to feel good about what they’re doing with a home that’s not their primary residence.”

Recently Aslan was approved as a down payment assistance program with Cross Country Mortgage and Lawyers Title. “We put money alongside the down payment so the pastor can have a small enough mortgage to service,” says Bergeron. “Next, we hope to create a funding pool of equity share dollars where Christian institutions, people with retirement accounts, and high net worth individuals can invest in the California real estate market and bless pastors.”

Bergeron has learned a lot during the past four years and is using that knowledge and experience to consult  with several churches both in the Bay area and elsewhere including Washington state and New York. “We can help churches find better housing solutions more quickly because we’re facilitating and scaffolding the strategy.”

Aslan has already helped more than thirty pastors, but Bergeron believes they’re at an inflection point.

“This new down payment assistance program is incredibly exciting. Now anytime some church, pastor, or church investor wants to do an equity share, they don’t have to go it alone. But to scale and make housing solutions affordable for churches, we need philanthropic support and investors.”

Contact Nicole Bergeron, nicole@aslan.org, to learn more about how your church or ministry can partner with Aslan.