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I’m thrilled to share some exciting news with you: Community HomeTrust has been honored with one of North Carolina’s top awards for excellence in affordable housing!

Our Open Air Camp Road Affordable Homes project in Durham has been selected as the 2025 Housing North Carolina Award winner for Innovation in Housing. Presented by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, this award recognizes creative, forward-thinking approaches to addressing our state’s housing needs. We’re so proud to have our work acknowledged in this way.

This project exemplifies what’s possible when community advocacy, innovation, and partnership come together. In 2022, five families living in a group of naturally occurring affordable homes (NOAH) along the Eno River faced the risk of eviction. Rather than leave the place they called home, the residents organized as the Eno River Tenants Associationand fought to preserve their homes. Their determination led them to partner with Community Home Trust.

In 2024, we acquired the five homes on Open Air Camp Road to add to our permanently affordable land trust inventory. With support from a grant from the Oak Foundation and a loan from the Durham Affordable Housing Loan Fund, we completed full rehabilitations on all five homes; including new roofs, windows, flooring, mold remediation, and kitchen renovations.

The tenants also now have the opportunity to pursue homeownership through our land trust model. So far, two families are on the path to owning their homes, a powerful testament to what stable, affordable housing can make possible.

As Scott Farmer, Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, said when presenting the award, “Open Air Camp Road Affordable Homes is the blueprint for what can be accomplished when we think outside the box.”

We also invite you to experience the full story of this remarkable project by watching our impact film, “Land, Trust, and Resilience: The Road to Staying Home.” The film highlights the renovation process and, more importantly, elevates the voices and stories of the residents who made this vision a reality.

We’re grateful for the many hands and hearts that helped make it happen; the residents who boldly advocated to stay in their homes, our staff who worked hard to bring this project to completion, our renovation partner Lazarus Repair and Maintenance, and all of you who believe in our mission.

We look forward to sharing more about this project at the 2025 NC Affordable Housing Conference in Raleigh on September 30, where we’ll be featured as part of the Housing Awards panel.

Thank you for being part of the Community Home Trust family. Together, we’re delivering and preserving more than just homes, we’re standing alongside communities fighting to stay rooted.

Kimberly Sanchez, Executive Director