S2E1: Housing Students & Opportunity

WITH GUESTS ERICA LIU AND MARK ELSDON 

In the first episode of Season 2, we hear from Erica and Mark about their work building and growing a student apartment community on a vacant lot as part of Pres House, a student ministry at the University of Wisconsin. Join our hosts, Elizabeth Coffee and Ramiro Gonzales, as they learn from Erica and Mark about the themes of taking risks, embracing change and understanding context from 2004 when the project began until now. 

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SHOW NOTES

Read More in Mark Elsdon’s book, We Aren’t Broke

KEY TAKEAWAYS

11:30 Three Guiding Principles

Take Risks

Embrace Change

Understand Context

14:00 Four Areas of Work

Pres House Church

PH Apartment Community

Candid: Holistic Student Wellness

GatherX: an Inclusive, Dynamic Community

24:50 “Getting it open is just the very beginning of the issue. Every single year, every single month, we’ve got something we need to deal with, something we need to figure out…. You’ve got to be committed to it, and want that transformative reality to be a part of the thing. It’s not just getting it built and walking away.”

26:40 The Nitty Gritty: Tax Implications 

“I highly recommend that if you’re gonna do property development like this, you want a really good team of lawyers, from the beginning. And you really need to understand the local situation.”

29:50 “We had to take a sabbatical after the whole thing to survive and continue our work, because it was intense… it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

CONTACT

Ramiro Gonzales | Westside Development Corporation

Elizabeth Coffee | Mission City Renewal

Erica Liu & Mark Elsdon | PresHouse

NEXT STEPS

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THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

“We’re 14 years into operating this thing, and there’s always some new thing to think about. Some new challenge, some new issue, some shift you have to make, or whatnot. You’re living with it, day in and day out.” (Mark Elsdon)