Housing Small Group Meetings
As you may have noticed Sunday after coffee hour, a few of us retreated to the fellowship room for the first housing small group meeting. There are openings still available for the next two meetings. One is April 21 hosted by Bonnie and Mike Smiley and the second is on May 5 hosted by Courtney McHill and Linda Cook. These both occur immediately after fellowship hour, and lunch will be served. They are an opportunity for us to share our ideas on affordable housing and its potential for St. Paul’s.
Housing Team Next Step
Your housing team is continuing to gather information, explore options and understand the possibilities for housing at St. Paul’s. We have traveled to existing affordable housing projects, interviewed staffs, had conversations with City Planners, read in-depth reports on city surveys, created a Housing Team bulletin board and notebook of information, established timelines, outlined agendas, and, most recently, we offered small group gatherings for discussions on housing.
The small group gatherings have given us insights into the thoughts and feelings of our congregation. After two meetings, one facilitated by Linda and Dave and the other on zoom with Ervin and Diane, we have registered several members thoughts about affordable housing. While support for the project was voiced, concerns were also shared for the team to research. Good, open and heartfelt conversations were shared and will continue with two more small group meetings yet to happen, one April 21 with Bonnie and Mike facilitating, and on May 5 facilitated by Pastor Courtney and Linda. We look forward to finishing this process soon.
Next we will gather the information gleaned at these small group gatherings, which should give us new directions to research. We also plan to visit other established facilities to see what they have to offer, investigate possible management partners and continue our efforts to gather as much information as we can for the congregation.