Stewardship of (Our) Land /Affordable Housing

Stirling has the good fortune to be caretakers of five houses around the church. We have used these resources as one of our Missions, Peace and Justice Ministry initiatives for affordable housing. Following a report to Church Council on Waterloo Region’s affordable housing crisis, we are feeling called to do more with these resources and are looking to complete a thorough discernment of our calling. 

To reflect the broader set of decisions Stirling is making about our calling regarding the land on which it sits, we are now referring to the process as “stewardship of (our) land”. While Affordable Housing remains a key part, the new term better incorporates our desire to ensure Creation Care and Honouring the original inhabitants of the land are also reflected in our priorities. We bracket (Our) land since we play a stewardship role for the original inhabitants, our forebears and future generations.

Current Discernment Activities

Please join in to contribute your ideas and hear from others on Stirling’s path toward consensus on use of the land we occupy.

• View this short video updating our discernment in October 2024. Offer feedback and ideas on this form.

• Zoom recording (fast forward the recording to 1hour 22 minutes) and Slide show from May 26, 2024 Faith Formation: this session outlined four questions we’ll need to answer before we can choose partner(s) and consider design(s)

• Join Small Group discussions

• In person June 2: brown bag lunch in Fellowship Hall 

• Online (contact Steve Manske for Zoom invite): 

• Monday, June 3 at 8:30-10:00 pm

• Wednesday, June 5 at 7:30-9:00 pm

• Respond to a survey (coming soon)

• View and comment on a net-zero, affordable housing design created by a university team – Fellowship Hall poster (can also view it here)

Past discernment around Affordable Housing and Opportunities for Stirling to Act

We have undertaken a variety of forms of discernment so far. Please click on the links below to view the various presentations and discussions that have been held at Stirling. 

• Church Council report on Waterloo Region’s affordable housing crisis and opportunities for Stirling.  (Summary of Church Council report  and Preliminary design concept for two (of many) ways to build on Stirling properties) 

• Primer” on Stirling’s Affordable Housing: What opportunities do we have to serve Jesus’ call to house “the least of these”? What questions do you need answered to aid your discernment? (20230129) 

• Affordable Housing Crisis in Waterloo Region presentation: Guest presenters: Dan Driedger, Exec Director of Beyond Housing/Menno Homes and Leah Logan, Regional Manager for Program for InDwell (20230205) 

• Book study of Kevin Nye’s Grace Can Lead Us Home.  A positive perspective on housing crisis and how Christians are called to respond.  

• Priorities for Land Stewardship at Stirling (20230423). We also had notes from the session. 

• Stirling Land Stewardship Alternatives: Beyond Building. We examined co-housing, intentional communities, subsiding rents (in houses we do not own). (20230528)

• We updated progress to help congregants understand our processes. (20230917)

• Luke Klassen’s team identified a design for the “Weber Street side” properties. (20230924)

• Isaiah Ritzmann and Laura Enns proposed an Urban Eco-Village that could potentially co-exist within any development. Process notes accompanied the session. (20231015)

• Stirling made site visits to Beyond Housing / St Paul’s Lutheran Church, YW-KW’s Block Line Road Housing and InDwell’s St Mark’s Place. (20231022)

• Ontario Aboriginal Housing Service presented their vision of 2000 affordable urban housing units. (20231029)

• We have identified selected resources for affordable housing . We invite you to add more as you become aware of them.

• We gathered information from site visits to other affordable housing locations

Steering Committee 

Church Council appointed a Steering Committee to direct the discernment process. You can always speak directly with a Steering Committee member listed below. 

• Steve Manske: 519-573-0759; manske@uwaterloo.ca 

• Brian Unrau, Russ Parnell, Brad Schlegel, Kim Penner

• Vision Committee: Pat Fisher, Paul Stevens, Dan Ulrich, Will Winterfeld

Selected Resources Beyond Stirling 

Organizations Addressing Affordable Housing 

• Beyond Housing / Menno Homes: passionate about building quality Affordable Housing rental units throughout Waterloo Region so that a diverse range of people in households with low to moderate incomes have improved access to housing. 

• InDwell (a Christian charity that creates affordable housing communities that support people seeking health, wellness and belonging ) and Flourish (A social purpose real estate development services company) 

• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 

• Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services

Reports focused on Affordable Housing

• Waterloo Region 2023 Vital Signs report

• TED Talk advocating for carbon-positive housing that will help solve world’s population crisis