Rendering of the completed La Herencia. Photo courtesy of LUCHA

A good home can be a sanctuary. Humboldt Park United Methodist Church is demonstrating that a sanctuary can be a good home.

Over the past few years, the church has faced some difficult decisions. The congregation on Chicago’s west side was getting smaller and the 98-year-old building was expensive to maintain. Church members could better worship and serve their neighbors in a smaller space. At the same time, they wanted the valuable building—which has 12 apartments—to continue to bless the neighborhood.

Providing housing sounded like it would continue the church’s legacy. 

LUCHA, an organization that provides advocacy and affordable housing development, particularly for Latino and Spanish-speaking populations, showed interest in purchasing the building in 2018 in order to transform it into affordable housing. This would continue one of the church’s core ministries. 

Providing housing has been part of the church’s ministry since its inception.  

“When the church was built in 1928, most of the members were German immigrants,” explains Rev. Paula Cripps-Villejo, HPUMC’s pastor. The building’s 12 apartments both addressed a need of the new neighbors and gave the church a revenue stream.  

In the 1960s, the Hispanic folks began moving to the neighborhood. The need for affordable housing remained and the church continued to provide it. 

Now the church remodeling is underway. In a neighborhood being eyed by developers for gentrification, housing the existing residents can afford is an increasingly scarce necessity.  

A side rendering of the planned apartments. Photo courtesy of LUCHA

It’s the first time in Chicago that a sanctuary has been transformed into affordable housing, Rev. Cripps-Villejo believes.

Those who were living in the church apartments have been moved temporarily and will likely be able to return at the end of the year once the new units are completed.  

The new apartments will be improved over the century-old ones.

“The original units were limited in size,” says Rev. Cripps Villejo. “There were nine one-bedroom apartments and three three-bedroom apartments.”

It was also not possible to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. 

The new development—called La Herencia, or The Inheritance—will offer some two-bedroom apartments—and all will be ADA compliant. 

HUMC now meets for worship in a space near Armitage and Pulaski. Once a month, they worship in a home, a Hispanic cultural practice. They also have access to Grace United Methodist Church. In the meantime, they are seeking a new building. 

“We are hoping to move to a section that is more Hispanic and does not have a mainline Protestant presence,” Rev. Cripps-Villejo says. “We preach and live liberation theology,” a perspective proposed by Gustavo Guttierez in his 1988 book A Theology of Liberation. 

“Our hope is to be a judgment-free zone,” says Rev. Cripps-Villejo. “We seek to be a church that shows how expansive God’s love is.

“We believe we are called to bring souls to Jesus and together save/restore the soul of the systems that break and dismiss God’s community. We work and pray for the day when our hearts and our world reflect God’s inclusive and liberative love.”