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Last week, we came together with partners, elected officials, funders, neighbors, and friends to celebrate something truly special: the groundbreaking of Homestead Gardens.

This moment has been years in the making, and it reflects the power of community. Homestead Gardens is the result of a deep collaboration between Self-Help Ventures Fund, CASA, Community Home Trust, and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, NC, alongside the Town of Chapel Hill. Together, we’re building more than housing, we’re creating a place where people can put down roots and feel at home.

Homestead Gardens will be a 100% affordable residential community designed with care for the people who make Chapel Hill what it is: teachers, service workers, and so many others who contribute to the fabric of this town every day. By creating homes that are close to jobs, schools, and daily essentials, this development helps ensure that more members of our community can live and thrive here.

The neighborhood will include 87 homes, with a mix of apartments and townhomes that offer both rental and homeownership opportunities. With a range of sizes and price points, Homestead Gardens is designed to welcome households of different shapes, sizes, and incomes.

What makes this community especially meaningful is its commitment to long-term affordability. Every home at Homestead Gardens will remain permanently affordable, helping to preserve access to housing for generations to come. As part of this effort, Community Home Trust and Habitat for Humanity are partnering in a new way; bringing Habitat-built homes into Community Home Trust’s permanently affordable portfolio to ensure lasting impact.

Homestead Gardens is also being built with connection in mind. Future residents will be able to gather and spend time together in shared spaces like a greenway trail, basketball court, natural surface trails, playground, gazebo, and a community room open to all.

As we turn the first shovels of dirt, we’re filled with gratitude, for the partners who believed in this vision, for the community members who supported it, and for the future residents who will make Homestead Gardens a vibrant, welcoming neighborhood.

This is what community looks like, and we can’t wait to see it grow.

You can learn more about Homestead Gardens and how this incredible collaboration took shape here.