What Does Housing Have to do with Peacebuilding?
What does it mean to be a peacebuilder in your current context? What does it look like to catalyze peace and strive for the shalom of your community? In my first year with Peace Catalyst, these were questions I deeply considered, as they helped situate me within my context and illuminate possible ways forward. Embracing the guidance of experts and peace practitioners both within and outside of the organization, I began the process by opening myself up to listen and to understand. Questions like:
Who are my neighbors?
Where are history’s fingerprints seen within today’s societal conflicts?
What do people yearn for; what do community members dream to see realized in the face of these realities?
leveraged a healthy and humble curiosity and helped orient me in the initial phase of community peacebuilding. Granted, the data gathered from these questions had its limits, handicapped by the finite number of stories, resources, and voices from which I was able to learn. Nonetheless, the process of discovery was deep and rich. Although I had been a resident of my city, Pasadena, CA, for over two years and the wider community of Los Angeles County for over 8 years, I was unaware of and disconnected from the injustice and pain surrounding me. As I began to read, to research, and to gain a firmer grasp on significant areas of division, my eyes were opened to new realities. I began to understand the socioeconomic divide to be one of the most deeply felt conflicts playing out in the community.
Pasadena is one of the most unequal cities in California, third only to San Francisco and Lancaster, with an ever-widening economic divide:“When we compare the gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent, Pasadena is, once again, nearly the most unequal California city.”1 As housing prices in Pasadena and LA County continue to soar and redevelopment projects take root, lower-income, generally minority families, are forced to relocate. The implications of the city’s past and present context are far-reaching, affecting the health of public schools and businesses and the increasingly severe issue of homelessness. Perhaps it seems the conversation has ventured far from peacebuilding. How does any of this — economic disparity, public education, and homelessness — connect to shalom? I have begun to learn that they are not only connected but actually inseparable. The peace of God confronts every area of individual, relational, and systemic brokenness in which reality is divorced from shalom and invites each area to participate in the state of wholeness, restoration, harmony, and abundant flourishing that defines it.2
How does any of this — economic disparity, public education, and homelessness — connect to shalom? I have begun to learn that they are not only connected but actually inseparable.
God, to whom we look as the source and embodiment of justice and shalom, cares immensely about land and about safe and just communities. Evidence of this is strewn throughout Scripture. God’s formation of Israel carried very practical implications. In the legal codes explicated in the Torah, for instance, the Israelites were called to operate in a way that simultaneously worked within and actively resisted the systems of the day. Although the Israelites might buy Hebrew slaves, they were called to free them in the seventh year of their service (Exodus 21:1-11). Similarly, they were commanded to let the land rest (Exodus 23:10-13) and to see that those who were displaced from homes were treated fairly (Exodus 22:21-24). In the prophets, God condemned those who neglected the poor and envisioned a just order of society in which families can build homes and dwell safely in them (Isaiah 65:17-25). While this vision rings with eschatological significance, it also mirrors God’s just design for right now. The Kingdom of God is a colorful blueprint, providing an outline and framework for our collective imagination of a shalom-infused community. In our pursuit of the God of Justice and Peace, then, would it not be natural to tend to matters such as these? How can ambassadors of Christ be a reconciling presence in the face of housing injustice and homelessness? Where does the Church find itself in its local engagement with these issues?
The church might find itself in a variety of spaces. As a means of illustrating, I will highlight the work of two local groups with which I have been able to connect and who are engaging in very different, yet equally important ways. Making Housing and Community Happen is a twenty-year-old faith-based organization that has been instrumental in local community advocacy and organizing. They form intersectional partnerships, educate faith communities on the biblical basis for housing justice, and advocate on behalf of affordable housing initiatives. Their efforts have brought policy change and have advanced community strategies that seek to reconcile historically unjust housing policies, practices, and structures (i.e. the practice of redlining, racial covenants, or freeway construction that displaced entire neighborhoods) that have significantly disenfranchised groups like Pasadena’s African American population. I have participated in one of their current campaigns in which they are advocating for city-wide rezoning that will allow institutions (such as churches, for instance) to build affordable housing on their unused land.
The church might also work further downstream, so to speak, providing direct aid to vulnerable or marginalized populations. Located a few cities over, Silverlake Community Church recognized the gap in services to the unhoused community in their area and responded by building a weekly program. What began as a food distribution program has matured into a multi-service operation, offering a medical drop-in center, clothing, and food. The church partners with uniquely equipped organizations and individuals, such as social workers and physicians, demonstrating the value of community collaboration. Individuals from unique professions, ages, religious traditions, etc., unite with a shared vision of listening to and partnering with their unhoused neighbors. I have been privileged to participate in these efforts.
Whether the Church hopes to change structures and systems, or provides direct assistance, both responses are incredibly valuable, and both ultimately build peace. Of paramount importance is that in some way, Christians embrace a vision of shalom that is wholly inclusive — one that claims that there is no peace in one’s community until there is peace for all.
Peter Dreir and Mark Maier, “Pasadena’s Tale of Two Cities,” January 24, 2019, http://www.peterdreier.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pasadenas-Tale-of-Two-Cities-2019-final-pdf-version.pdf.
Peace Catalyst International, “Shalom,” http://www.peterdreier.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pasadenas-Tale-of-Two-Cities-2019-final-pdf-version.pdf.
