In March 2025, 14 women stood on the porch of a new home in Selma, AL. Their names were entered into a raffle that selects from a specific group of unhoused families who are in need. Unlike random selection methods, these 14 women were chosen from a mix of families experiencing homelessness, housing instability, or extreme economic hardship—seen by the system as deserving access to land.

Desiree McGuire, who was experiencing homelessness, was among those selected and offered a life-changing opportunity supported by the Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF). The BBCF organized and sponsored the construction of homes built in a Selma community that had been destroyed during a tornado in 2023. Then the BBCF, the Selma Housing Authority, and NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, worked together to change the financial situation and offer homes for people who never had one.

“The check that was written to us 250 years ago bounced,” Christopher Spencer, resident and CEO of BBCF, said of the US government’s promise of equality and independence and what that promise has meant for the Black communities he serves.

He speaks not as a protestor, but as a pastor, as a CEO, and as a son of Sumter County. For 22 years as a community volunteer, he has seen the gap between promise and payment grow. He believes wholeheartedly that providing housing security works best to close that gap. He has driven the 146 miles needed to do the work for his community—one house, one grant, and one listening session at a time.

“You can’t repair without repaying as well,” he said. “It’s more than just a check. He who controls the land controls the wealth. God isn’t giving us any more land. It’s all we have.”

"The individuals who lived through these experiences, when their land was stolen through racially motivated means, they are the proof. They are sometimes the only proof left."

Affordable Homeownership in the Black Belt

There is a model that is helping BBCF and other organizations to create affordable homeownership in the Black Belt: community land trusts. This model has roots in a civil rights initiative from 1969, not a policy paper or foundation board room. It came from Lee County, GA, when civil rights advocates posed a question that deserves answering in this day and age: how can people be truly free if they cannot control the land that they hold citizenship to?

Read the full article about Black faith-based nonprofits by Shivank Pandey at Nonprofit Quarterly.