A Triangle town will turn public land into affordable homes. Why it matters.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chapel Hill is converting 14 acres of town land into 87 affordable homes.
- The project serves households earning between 30% and 115% of area median income.
- Town has deployed $21 million and has built 62 and preserved 161 affordable housing units.
As rising housing costs push many service workers and families to the margins, Chapel Hill has begun transforming a 14‑acre parcel of town‑owned land into a new neighborhood of 87 permanently affordable homes.
Construction began on Homestead Gardens at 2200 Homestead Road in northwest Chapel Hill earlier this month.
The project is backed by a coalition of local and state partners, including CASA, Community Home Trust, Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and Self-Help Ventures Fund. It’s part of a growing push among fast‑growing cities to use public land as a tool for expanding access to stable housing.
“Homestead Gardens [is] what’s possible when communities intentionally invest in housing that serves people across income levels,” said Dan Levine, director of real estate at Self-Help, in a news release
(Raleigh is also using city-owned land for supportive and affordable housing, most visibly through the 100-unit King’s Ridge project completed in 2025. Durham is using public land, including downtown, usually through partnerships with CASA or other nonprofit developers.)
The Chapel Hill site, identified as surplus public property several years ago, sits between Weaver Dairy Road Extension and the railroad tracks. The town has been talking about how to use it for a mixed-income community since 2017. It once served as the home for Hope Gardens and included the vacant Sport Art Gymnastics building.
The neighborhood will have 87 homes, from 1-bedroom apartments to 4-bedroom townhomes, and 181 parking spaces, all within walking distance of a bus stop, the Seymour Senior Center, Homestead Park, and Seawell Elementary, Smith Middle and Chapel Hill High schools.
It will also feature over 33,000 square feet of recreational space, including a basketball court, nature trail, greenway and playground. Hope Gardens is being relocated to the northern end of the property, accessible from Weaver Dairy Road Extension.
The town’s goal is housing for individuals and families who earn between 30% and 115% of the area median income, which is $126,200 for a family of four in Chapel Hill, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That includes individuals earning between $24,3000 and $64,750 a year, up to a family of five earning between $37,500 and $99,900.
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A growing affordability gap
Nearly 70% of renters, or approximately 5,700 households in Chapel Hill, are “cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs, town data shows.
Of these, 3,700 households are severely cost burdened, meaning they spend 50% or more of their gross income on housing costs.
(Note: UNC-Chapel Hill students living off-campus are estimated to make up about 40% of all renter households in Orange County, significantly impacting the overall rental market.)
Rents in Chapel Hill increased by over 23% since the start of the pandemic. As of April 2026, the median monthly rent for all bedroom counts and property types was $2,000, according to Zumper. That’s 3%, or $51, higher than the national average.
In 2023, the town launched a five-year strategy to reduce barriers to building homes and expand affordable housing. That included creating a $20 million affordable-housing funding program, with a $15 million bond referendum passed in 2024 to support the new housing plan.
So far, it’s deployed $21 million, built 62 new affordable units, preserved 161 more, and invested $2.8 million to support partner-led housing projects and programs, according to its 2025 Affordable Housing Annual Report. Another 1,300 affordable homes are in the pipeline.
Other projects include Tanyard Branch Trace, a 48-unit development on Jay Street and Trinity Court, a 54-unit development off South Merritt Mill Road.
