Agency offers affordable housing video, study guide
2/13/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. By United Methodist News Service The
United Methodist Church's pension benefits agency has released a video
on its affordable housing investment program, along with a study guide
for groups and congregations on affordable housing issues.
"Sharing
the Dream: A Place to Call Home" is a 16-minute video that focuses on
the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits' affordable
housing and community development investments. It showcases the Margaret
J. Bennett House in Baltimore and Woodland City in Dallas as examples
of affordable housing successes. Both benefited from investments made by
the board.
"The lack of affordable housing units for many
low-income Americans is a crisis to which the church must respond," said
Gale Whitson-Schmidt, deputy general secretary of the board in
Evanston, Ill. "The general board has found that we can invest the
assets entrusted to us in ways that support this important mission of
the United Methodist Church."
The board, a major institutional
investor, has been involved in affordable housing projects since 1990,
and its commitments total nearly $1 billion. The agency's investments
have resulted in the creation or renovation of more than 20,000
affordable housing units in the United States, while earning an
annualized rate of return of about 7.5 percent on behalf of the
participants in the denomination's benefits plans.
"Sharing the
Dream" and its accompanying study guide may be used in classroom, Sunday
school, retreat and other group settings to create greater awareness of
affordable housing issues. The study guide describes what the church
says about affordable housing, what some congregations and conferences
have done to develop affordable housing ministries, and what churches
and individuals can do at the local level.
Copies are available at no charge from the board. More details can be found at www.gbophb.org.
# # #
*The United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits provided the information for this story.
|
Back : News Archives 2003 Main
|
|
“We believe in God and in each other.”The people of The United Methodist Church
Still Have Questions?
If you have any questions Ask
InfoServ
Purchase a $20 buzzkill t-shirt and help save a life
Buy a t-shirt
|
Korean News