It seems every time we turn around we hear about budgets being slashed, jobs eliminated and other gloomy employment and economic news. Well, sit back and enjoy some wonderful news about a generous act by a local congregation that will benefit Lowell in a fantastic way.
For those of you who do not know, Flat River Outreach Ministries (FROM) is doing a fundraising campaign to make a lovely and much needed addition to housing in Lowell.
FROM wants to expand upon the affordable housing they currently offer on Main Street. A previous story spelled out both the need and the plan to address that need though the Building Foundations, Building Hope campaign.
The congregation at Lowell United Methodist Church (LUMC) got wind of the plans FROM has underway just down the street from their church and decided to make it a goal to help provide flooring for the project. As a result of their focus and generosity, LUMC raised a total of $23,030.17 from two services held at the church on Miracle Sunday on March 30th.
Here’s some of the back story. The church had made a goal to help out FROM’s campaign and set a lofty target of raising $21,500 with the intention of covering the cost of flooring for five of the housing units FROM is planning to build.
We asked LUMC Pastor Brad Brillhart why they choose FROM’s housing project.
“FROM originated at Lowell UMC, so any ministry FROM is involved in we are interested,” he responded. “Many of our church members also volunteer at FROM. and I have some great friendships with the FROM staff from serving on the board and helping with other ministries so we were very much aware of what FROM was planning.”
A look at LUMC’s Facebook page found this message posted Sunday March 30:
“TODAY IS MIRACLE SUNDAY! Today is the day Lowell UMC will be gathering your gifts to meet our goal of raising $21,500 towards FROM’s affordable housing project. We have committed to cover the costs of flooring for five (5) of the 17 units that are being built this year. Bring your gifts to either 9:00 worship in the sanctuary or 10:45 worship in our Sound Check Center. Thank you on behalf of our community. God is Still Making Miracles!”
Brillhart continued by restating what FROM had discovered when doing a deep dive into the state of area housing.
“Like many of the awesome churches in the Lowell community, our church is interested in helping people who need help,” Brillhart told us. “Housing is a big issue in our country and community right now, and we see that.”
“Rent has gone up substantially over the past 10 years and people who may not have many funds or who may have gone through hard times need help,” he added. “Our culture, interested primarily in making more and more money, doesn’t see the suffering inflicted by unjust housing costs, but we see and we care. And that’s why we give and why we help. We want to love our neighbor as Jesus taught us.”
As FROM and Brillhart have noted, Lowell is by no means alone in it’s need for affordable housing. This need is strong in many other parts of Michigan as well as across the nation as a whole.
In our state, developers used to have rent restrictions mandated by law when they received some form of assistance to build housing from state coffers. The amount of rent allowed to be charged was based on the number of bedrooms and square footage. For many, this seemed to be a common sense approach – if tax monies were used to create housing, then the state should regulate the rent to keep it reasonable for the initial few years of the project.
Those days are gone, and the state banned municipalities from enacting rent control ordinances in 1988. Many developers now just seem to want the maximum return on their investment and charge “what the market will bear”.
We closed out our conversation with Brillhart by asking what he thought about FROM overall.
“Cornel West once said, ‘Justice is what love looks like in public.’ And that is FROM,” according to Brillhart. “Justice is helping to restore, to make whole, and to make things right in communities and in people’s personal lives. FROM is love and justice shared in public, in our community, though people who see and care.”
The congregation at LUMC saw the need and cared about it enough to dig deep and exceed their own lofty goal in an effort to address the housing needs in Lowell. We are certain the new residents will appreciate having lovely new floors in their residences.
For more information about the Building Foundations, Building Hope campaign, visit the FROM website.
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