If you ask him, Gino Haynes says his life has turned out differently from how it envisioned it.
Originally, Haynes’s goal was to start his own church — which he accomplished when he moved from Akron in 2015 and started a church in the Canton suburb of Louisville.
But as pastor, Haynes found his congregants voicing one particular need over and over again: housing.
“A lot of the housing stock that we have is outdated and in need of renovation,” Haynes says. “We have a lot of empty lots. We have a lot of dilapidated housing.”
That ended up taking him in a new direction: affordable housing. He's now a community organizer for Canton For All People, the nonprofit arm of Crossroads United Methodist Church, with a focus on developing low-cost housing for residents.
A Rust Belt paradox
Canton is one of several Rust Belt cities (others include Detroit, St. Louis and Buffalo) facing the paradox of a surplus of vacant lots and buildings but a deficit of secure, move-in-ready homes.
The problem is compounded by the effects of discrimination. Black Canton residents deal with the repercussions of redlining, a practice where banks discriminated against Black families by denying loans to build homes in specific neighborhoods.
All these factors contribute to an ongoing housing crisis, says Julie Sparks, executive director of ICAN Housing, a Canton-based nonprofit focused on homelessness.
“That person who's serving you your latte or checking you out at Marc's — that person needs to work 1.5 full-time jobs to be able to afford rent,” Sparks says. “So, you know, it's an obvious crisis.”
Median home prices and median rent prices in Ohio last year were the second-highest on record when adjusted for inflation, even as wages remain stagnant.
Changing the narrative
Haynes wanted to build opportunities for homeownership, particularly among working class residents, and he saw that opportunity when he joined Canton for All People in 2021. Now, instead of drafting sermons, he’s organizing tenant unions and listening to resident concerns.
Canton for All People developed a strategy to improve the city’s Shorb neighborhood, which faced redlining and now has high levels of crime and disinvestment. Since its beginning in 2021, the organization has renovated 13 homes and built 5 new homes in Shorb, and the nonprofit worked with the city to tear down the rundown Canton Inn and start construction on a new affordable apartment complex with a community room, a fitness facility and 52 affordable units.
Addressing the neighborhood’s housing issues also has impacts on other areas. Violent crime has decreased by 26 percent in the Shorb area, compared to a 10 percent decrease citywide. Haynes says that he can directly see the impact of his work in the neighborhoods where he works.
“We saw that people took it upon themselves to start taking care of their own homes,” Haynes says. “We started seeing roofs being replaced and all these other things happening too. So there's a ripple effect.”
Providing affordable housing also gives people agency to solve other personal issues, says Sparks.
“If you have a roof over your head, there's a greater sense of safety, and a place for your possessions,” Sparks says. “So, those things bring a person up to a level emotionally to address their barriers to whatever it is that maybe got them in this position.”
Connecting faith and advocacy
Haynes still occasionally preaches at various churches, but building houses is his new ministry. Many of the skills he used as a pastor, like mediating conflicts and coordinating projects, are useful in his work as an organizer. He uses his experience as a pastor not just to build homes, but to build connections between Canton residents.
“The main lesson that I would pull away is to fall in love with people, not the idea,” Haynes says. “It should always start with a person.”
From building a church to building homes, community is at the center of his work.
“When you talk about the kingdom of God, oftentimes people go to an idea of this disconnected retirement home that lives outside of this reality,” Haynes explains. “But I would even argue that the scriptures point to a kingdom of God that is right now. And if it is right now, then we should be able to see glimpses of it right now.”
He still has some work to do in reaching his goal of bringing some heaven down to Canton. But he says he’ll keep trying to get there one house at a time. Canton for All People plans to finish building 10 additional homes and renovating two homes before the end of the year.
