GBIO Clergy Send Letter to State House in Support of YIGBY

The Honorable Carole Fiola
House Chair, Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies
State House, Room 236

The Honorable Barry Finegold
Senate Chair, Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies
State House, Room 109-D

The Honorable Michael J. Rodrigues
Chair, Senate Ways & Means Committee
State House, Room 212

The Honorable Aaron Michelwitz
Chair, House Ways & Means Committee
State House, Room 243

Dear Chairs Fiola and Finegold and Chairs Michelewitz and Rodrigues.

We are writing as 33 clergy leaders from 32 places of worship located across Greater Boston and neighboring municipalities unified in a shared vision of building a Massachusetts where everyone has access to safe, decent and affordable housing.  We urge you to include YIGBY (Yes In God’s Backyard) legislation in H.5527, which your Committees will take up very soon.

Through the course of our work within our respective faith institutions, we frequently see the fear and uncertainty that comes with housing instability. This crisis has been and continues to be well documented, and many of our congregations are seeing the consequences in the form of lower participation in worship as well as service ministries. Young families who want to root themselves in our communities are left with fewer and fewer opportunities to do so, with many resolving to leave Massachusetts altogether. Massachusetts has the third highest median home price and the highest median rent price. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, rents and purchase prices have skyrocketed. Average home prices went up by $300,000 from 2014 to 2024. Average rents went up about 25% between 2019 and 2024.

People deserve to be able to thrive, and that means being able to build wealth and maintain stability that props up future generations. At the current pace, housing costs threaten to further stifle growth and make existing wealth disparities even harder to overcome.

We believe that this does not have to be our reality. As a community united in faith, we share a deep sense of responsibility to do our part to mitigate the effects of this housing crisis, but currently are lacking the legislative infrastructure needed to make an impact. 

We write to you to urge that the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies and the Ways and Means Committees include language in the 2026 Economic Development bill that would allow by-right development of multi-family housing on land owned by religious organizations. Known as “YIGBY” (Yes In God’s Backyard), these provisions would create a much-needed path for faith institutions to live out our shared responsibility. 

Several GBIO member congregations are working on affordable housing developments that would be bolstered by YIGBY language, such as Saint Katharine Drexel Parish’s Drexel Village project in Roxbury. Broadly, faith-based organizations own nearly 2,000 parcels that can support housing development, so YIGBY could allow for the construction of 100,000 homes, a massive boon for the state housing supply.

GBIO has a long standing commitment to the expansion of affordable housing, and applaud the historic investment made into our public housing supply via the Affordable Homes Act, but progress cannot stop there. We urge the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies and the Ways and Means Committees to pursue this bold step toward alleviating our housing crisis by including the YIGBY language in the economic development legislation. Faith communities are eager to help resolve this ongoing crisis in our Commonwealth.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Steven Watson
Senior Pastor, Reservoir Church

Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Senior Rabbi, Congregation Dorshei Tzedek

Rev. Mary Martha Thiel
First Church Cambridge Congregational UCC

The Rev. Dr. George Clifford
Priest, Christ Church Cambridge

Rev. Barbara Lemmel
Co-Pastor, Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church

Rev. V. Mitchell Hay
Co-Pastor, Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church

The Rev. Clifford R Brown
Pastor, Christ's Church, Quincy MA 

Rabbi Serena Fujita
Retired Rabbi, Bucknell University

Rev. John Gibbons
Minister Emeritus and Community Minister for Good Trouble
First Parish Bedford, Boston’s Arlington Street Church, and Community Church of Boston

Rev. Martha Schick
Associate Minister, Trinitarian Congregational Church

Rev. Dr. Dieufort J Fleurissaint
Senior pastor, Total Health Christian Ministries

Rev. Dr. Stephanie May
Senior Minister, First Church in Boston

Rev. Cynthia Worthington-Berry
Pastor, First Congregational Church of Natick

Rev. Burns Stanfield
Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, South Boston

Rabbi Talia Stein
Associate Rabbi, Temple Sinai Brookline

Rev. Elizabeth Wieman
Pastor, Hyde Park Presbyterian Church

Sister Margaret Lanen SNDdeN
St. Monica Church South Boston

Rev. Kyle Walden
Associate Pastor, Union Combined Parish (United Methodist, Boston, MA)

Rabbi Aliza Berger
Rav Hazzan, Temple Emanuel of Newton

Rev. Jane Simms Lawrence
Pastor, Union Combined Parish

Rev. Jordan Harris
Lead Pastor, Connexion United Methodist Church, First Community United Methodist Church 

Rev. Won-Jae Hur
Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brookline

Rev. Charlene Zuill
Director of Spiritual Life, United Methodist Church

Rev. Marcelle Dotson Senior
Pastor, Parkway United Methodist Church

Reverend Megan Berkowitz
Senior Pastor, The Union Church in Waban

Rev. David C Clark
Minister, Hancock Church, United Church of Christ

Chase Grogan
Teaching Elder, Roxbury Presbyterian Church 

The Rev. Isaac Martinez
Rector, Trinity Parish in Melrose (Episcopal)

Rev. Dr. Ellis I. Washington
Senior Pastor, St. Paul A.M.E. Church

Rev. Kate Layzer
Minister of Street Outreach, First Church in Cambridge

Rabbi Raysh Weiss, PhD
Co-Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel of Natick

Rev. Rob Mark
Lead Pastor, Church of the Covenant

Rabbi David Lerner
Senior Rabbi, Temple Emunah