Oakland Gospel Church Building Low-Income Housing Complex
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- An Oakland church is expanding its work from preaching to building. Acts Full Gospel Church recently broke ground on a low-income housing project in East Oakland.
Associate Pastor Mark Claybrooks admitted the idea of entering the construction business at first sounded unrealistic. "This was the furthest thing from my mind that pertains to the operation of what a church actually does," said Claybrooks.
Acts Full Gospel is the biggest Oakland church with thousands of members. But like many other churches, it is losing members. Housing prices have been pushing many black families to Antioch and Stockton.
"A church must be a part of the city, more than preaching on Sunday," said Claybrooks. "We have to help people, get the needs they have. They have a spiritual need, we're there. But they have physical needs, too."
The church is building 59 units of low-income housing on International Boulevard and 94th Avenue. The building will have four stories. The first floor will include retail stores and a community center offering job training. The upper floors will be residential.
"We're naming the project 'Africa Town,'" said Claybrooks.
The city supports the idea, putting in $7.7 million. The state and the feds will pay for the rest. Construction will cost roughly $34 million. If everything goes according to plan, the church expects to finish building the complex in 2018.
It's the first time an Oakland church went out to buy land and build a large low-income complex. 12 years ago, a different church built a smaller housing complex on its existing land.
Acts Full Gospel church isn't done. It is trying to convince the city to allow it to build low-income senior housing across the street from the current project.
