Multiple Grammy-award-winning artist and pastor Hezekiah Walker has always had a thing for making a difference in the community, and now he’s doing it in a way he never imagined. What was once a dream of building a 2,000-seated church became a vision of creating HezHouse Apartments, an affordable and supportive housing development on the streets of East New York, Brooklyn.
Walker spoke with rolling out about the project, the message he received from the Lord to start the project, the importance of legacy and generational wealth, and what people should know about affordable housing.
What led you to start on this project?
We’ve been working on this project for at least 15 to 20 years. The Lord blessed us with a piece of property a few years ago, and I’m big on staying in the community. I bought a piece of property to build a church; that’s what preachers and pastors do. We’ve been working on it, got architects and everybody together, and we spent thousands of dollars trying to put this big 2,000-seated church in Brooklyn, New York. As we were getting ready to finalize everything, the Lord switched gears on me. I was praying and the Lord said, “Build housing for the community.” I was like, “I have no problems with that, God.” As I began to change gears, a developer came to me and said, “Hezekiah Walker, we know about your property. We want to connect with you, and we want to build affordable housing.” Eleven years later and we’re going to start the groundbreaking.
Why are legacy and generational wealth important?
I wanna start with generational wealth. It’s so important that we leave that type of wealth for our family and also to show this culture that we as Black people can do something positive for our people and accumulate finances, as well. As far as legacy is concerned, I think it’s important that we all understand that legacy for our families and people is important. If we don’t leave a legacy, I believe we hurt a generation.
What should people know about affordable housing and real estate?
I would tell the people of faith that it’s our job to make sure that people eat, people are clothed, and people are housed. I think we spend so much time and energy on our houses of worship. Don’t get me wrong; I believe that we should have a place to come and gather and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, but I also think that we need to step outside of the walls of our church and start doing something for our community, as opposed to just being in the building, jumping and shouting. I didn’t always see it like that, but I see it now. The community looks for us, and the first thing they always say is, “Where’s the church? Why is the church not supporting?” This is a step ahead to show the people the church is giving back, and doing something powerful for the people. We’re not just having food drives like most churches do, but now we’re moving into supplying housing for people.
