Affordable and Clergy Housing
Why Are We Investigating Building Housing on the St. Jude’s Campus?
The idea to consider affordable housing on our campus came from a Diocesan-wide effort in 2020 to live out our faith by addressing shared needs of our community. A Parish survey in 2021 showed that affordable housing was one of the top outreach priorities for St. Jude’s.
Concurrently, in 2020, St. Jude’s called Rev. Aaron Klinefelter to be our Rector; it was made clear during that process that there were potential Rector candidates that did not apply because we did not have a house available to them. As housing prices have continued to skyrocket locally, adequately housing our Rector and family at St. Jude’s was a concern then and will likely be a greater one in the future.
Some have suggested the church should buy a home or land and build there to create a rectory. Based on reviews of local real estate, plus the work of the Condo Committee in 2020, purchasing land and/or a home locally is not fiscally possible for the parish. It’s also not possible financially for a rector that we might call (unless independently wealthy from other sources than ministry).
As these two issues–clergy and affordable housing–both concerned “housing”, a team was formed by Rev. Aaron in 2022 to investigate the possibilities of using our campus for housing. The Housing Team has been prayerfully working together since then, with renewed efforts since December 2024.
Our Housing Team members are Judy Foot, Sara Razavi, Ray Ojo, Jen Shearin, Jeffrey Pugh, and JR Fruen.
Please reach out to any of our team members if you have questions or concerns about the process or projects. Our team email is housing@saintjudes.org.
Latest Project Update
May 2025 Update Summary:
Over the last month, the Housing Team:
- Started interviewing Real Estate Development Consultants (REDCs) who will create a Feasibility Study for us.
- Created a Request for Proposal (RFP), a list of what work we are asking the REDC to do for us. They will use this when quoting their bid.
- Began the process of a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) to Trinity Wall Street, which is the first of two steps to apply for a grant to pay for the REDC/Feasibility Study. The LOI asks us for extensive information on our current ministry and outreach, our parish finances, as well as general information about our parish.
- Requested from (later approved by) Vestry $5000 for a “meaningful contribution” toward the Feasibility Study, as required by Trinity for all grant applications.
For more information, click the button above for the latest update 1-sheet or read our FAQs. Contact the team with questions: housing@saintjudes.org.
Past updates:
St. Jude's Campus Map
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this Housing Project and Housing Team about?
The St. Jude’s Housing Team was formed in 2022 in response to a 2021 Parish Survey and follow-up meetings and Town Halls which showed Affordable Housing was one of the top priorities for the parish.
What did parishioners say in the survey and meetings?
Almost all parishioners wanted Clergy Housing, and most parishioners wanted Affordable Housing.
Where are we in the process? When do we start building?
We have a lot of steps before we begin building! We’re approaching this prayerfully and diligently; our process is Discernment, Feasibility, Design, and then if the Parish agrees, Build. We began the Feasibility step in February 2025. Although California has streamlined the process for getting projects like this approved, it will take several years for any housing at St. Jude’s to be planned, approved, designed, built and ready for occupancy.
How and where can we fit housing on our campus?
We hired an architect to prepare some concept drawings, and there’s actually space for a Rectory and approximately 30 apartments, or a Rectory and 15-20 townhouses. In these concept drawings, the Rectory is south of the Memorial Garden (on the Stelling side) and the apartments/townhouses are on the northern half of the campus (on the McClellan side).
Do the current concepts affect the Sanctuary, Parish Hall, Memorial Garden, central courtyard, or Labyrinth?
No. Based on parish surveys, these areas have remained untouched in all concepts. The southern portion of the campus (including the Sanctuary, Parish Hall, central Courtyard, Labyrinth, and McClellan parking remains unchanged in current concepts, There are also no current plans to modify the Farmhouse.
Will the Classroom Buildings/Tenant spaces be impacted?
The current classroom buildings (Rooms 1-6), which are over 50 years old (built in 1967) and in need of re-roofing, would be removed and replaced with a mix of new, upgraded classrooms/tenant space and living space (apartments or townhouses). Our Ops Team has determined that maintaining the buildings as is will cost us $200K+ in the next decade; if we wished to keep them and bring them up to current code, that would be $1.7M+.
What will happen to the Orchard?
All concepts include an orchard space. The orchard would be relocated to the interior of the campus. In the current concept drawings, the relocated orchard would be visible from the Sanctuary Apricot window. Legacy trees could be moved as part of this relocation.
ST. JUDE THE APOSTLE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
20920 McClellan Road
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 252-4166
office@saintjudes.org
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