April 9: Notes from Home - Community Home Trust

Past Newsletters

Dear Subscriber,

In my last letter two weeks ago, I talked about LIHTC, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program that helps develop affordable rental housing. If you missed that email, you can find it here. This is the funding program that will be used to finance Tanyard Branch Trace on Jay Street, our affordable rental project in partnership with Taft Mills Group and the Town of Chapel Hill.

Recently, we received the exciting news that in addition to LIHTC funding, Tanyard Branch Trace will also receive $1.5 million as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024. North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee advocated for Tanyard Branch Trace to receive this funding. You can read the press release about all of the funded projects here.

So now you may be wondering what all of this means for Tanyard Branch Trace! With funding secured, we are in an excellent position to begin work on the project. Construction timelines can vary widely (so no promises!), but our hope is to have tenants moving in to the 48 affordable rental units by the end of 2025.

Building affordable housing takes a tremendous amount of work and cooperation, and this project is no exception. When it’s completed, Tanyard Branch Trace will be the product of a three-way public-private partnership: the Town of Chapel Hill is providing the land and funding, Taft Mills Group is the developer, and Community Home Trust will provide support for the tenants who will live there. It also takes a very long time, as this project has demonstrated! You may have signed a petition or joined us for our “Keepin’ it 100” event in 2022, you may have written or spoken to Town Council about your support for the project – and if you’re one of the community members who has been invested in seeing this project come to fruition, you’re as excited as we are to see the next steps fast approaching. Of course, we’ll continue to share updates as we have them, but you can also check our website or more information anytime.

And Tanyard Branch Trace isn’t the only LIHTC project we’re working on! We’re also partnering with Taft Mills Group on their proposed Longleaf Trace development, a 48-unit age-restricted (55+) affordable rental development on Legion Road. Right now, Chapel Hill Town Council is considering whether to approve the project, which we expect to hear about later this month. Of course, we’ll share updates about that project, too, as we have them.