Under California law, cities in the state must demonstrate that enough appropriately zoned land is available to accommodate projected population growth across all economic segments.
To satisfy this housing mandate, cities like Lakewood are targeting church-owned properties for rezoning, sparking fears of forced sales or seizures.
Legal experts warn that these policies could, among other things, threaten the future use and ownership of religious properties across the state, creating a major clash between municipal housing plans and religious land-use protections.
Brad Dacus, whose Pacific Justice Institute is helping churches all across America, recently joined the "Washington Watch" program to unpack how these sweeping housing mandates are impacting local congregations.
"California has this mandate that cities have to appropriate land, zone land so you can have public housing, government paid public housing, kind of projects for the homeless, et cetera," he explained.
The problem, Dacus said, is companies can come in and tell a court the city is not meeting the state requirement, and the law allows them to file independent actions and seek eminent domain against churches.
"Right now, we are in Orange County, California, defending Calvary Chapel against a developer who is trying to take the rights of part of its land to make more housing," he relayed, saying the situation is not hypothetical.
The city of Lakewood went ahead and decided to zone 10 churches for public housing.
Host Tony Perkins pointed out that the Huntington Beach area where this is happening is one of the most conservative parts of the state. Though churches are more protected than any other entity when it comes to property land rights, he said they are being targeted because they do not pay property taxes, and the state would rather turn that into property that is generating revenue.
"We've fought this stuff before, and we stand ready to defend any church that has its land taken from them," Dacus said. "The stakes are high here, and we intend to make sure that this doesn't spread to other states by hopefully nipping it in the bud."
Perkins, whom Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Pastor Jack Hibbs alerted about this, said the issue is one of the reasons the Family Research Council launched the Pray Vote Stand Chapters initiative. The mission, he said, is to have a presence in the community and to serve as an early warning system for policies like this.
