Throughout the month of May, Affordable Housing and Community Connections staff are hosting Meet & Greets in all 12 of our public housing communities. These events are an opportunity for residents to meet our Director, Sarah Vinas, and enjoy a snow cone and informal social time with each other and Town staff. Hundreds of residents have attended of all ages. On behalf of our team, we want to thank everyone for coming out! We look forward to enjoying more opportunities to come together out in the community in the near future!
Council Approves $1.6 million in Funding to Support 76 Affordable Housing Units
On April 24, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the allocation of $1,668,800 in affordable housing funding. The funding will support the development of 66 new affordable units and preservation of 10 affordable units in the community. About 20 percent of the funded units will serve households earning 30 percent or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). Funded projects include:
Community Home Trust for critical foundation repair on an affordable duplex unit
EmPOWERment, Inc. for the acquisition of 8 Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing units on Davie Circle
Habitat for Humanity for acquisition of a parcel from the Northside Neighborhood Land Bank to build 12 for-sale townhomes
Residential Services Inc. (RSI) for the renovation of a single-family home into a 6-unit group home for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults
Taft-Mills Group and Community Home Trust to support the construction of 48 affordable apartments for seniors
The approval of this funding plan brings the Town’s investment in affordable housing to about $22 million over the last 5 years. That funding is supporting the development of nearly 400 units and the preservation of about 235 units.
Council Approves 48-unit Affordable Housing Community on Legion Road through Expedited Review Process
In April 2024, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously expressed support for the Longleaf Trace affordable housing community. On April 17, the Town Council approved a conditional rezoning of the parcel located at 1708 and 1712 Legion Road and on April 24, the Council approved $950,000 in affordable housing funding for the project. The Taft-Mills Group is developing the project in partnership with the Community Home Trust. The project will include 48 affordable apartments for seniors earning less than 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI)—12 of those units will serve households earning 30 percent or less of AMI.
The project is applying for a 2024 Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) award, which could bring more than $10 million in funding to the project. With that award, the Town’s funding commitment would represent less than 10 percent of project funding. Since 2022, the Town has achieved its goal of securing this competitive funding source every year and has developed a pipeline of LIHTC project applications planned for at least the next five years.
This is the first project to use the Town’s expedited review process for affordable housing, which Council approved in November 2023. The process offers a streamlined development review process for residential projects that include at least 25 percent of units as affordable. The project went through the Town’s process in 4 months total, a substantial reduction from the 18 months typically required for applicants to move through the Town’s development review process.
Learn More About the Town’s Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy
The Town’s Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy is estimated to require $50 million in funding over five years, which will support the development of at least 900 new affordable homes and the preservation of at least 400 affordable homes.
Check out the brief overview of the Plan which highlights the Plan’s goals, anticipated results, and resources needed for implementation.
The goals of the Plan include:
Reducing barriers to building homes
Expanding and preserving homeownership
Expanding and preserving rental housing
Increasing staff and funding capacity
The Town Council unanimously approved the Plan in September 2023. Staff have been working to incorporate the Plan recommendations into our affordable housing workplan.
Town Receives $1.5M Award for Tanyard Branch Trace Affordable Housing
The federal government recently awarded the Town of Chapel Hill $1.5 million to fund the Tanyard Branch Trace project (formerly Jay Street). The funding is awarded through the Community Project Funding program, which provides grants through a congressionally-directed application process to support a wide variety of projects, including affordable housing.
The Town is partnering with Community Home Trust and Taft-Mills Group to design, build, and manage the project on Town-owned land. Council approved the site plan in April 2022, which will include 48 affordable apartments. The project will house households that earn at or below 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or about $60,000 for a 4-person household.
Other funding sources include 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency as well as Town affordable housing funding.
The development team is working on securing final permits and expects to break ground in Summer 2024. The project will open in Winter 2026.
For more information, visit the Town’s project webpage.
Town Accepting Applications from Community Partners to Create Affordable Housing Opportunities in Chapel Hill
The Town of Chapel Hill released up to $800,000 to support community partner affordable housing projects on Friday, February 23. Applications will be due at 12:00 pm on Monday, March 18.
Eligible uses of this funding include:
Acquisition or land banking
Planning for future development
New construction and redevelopment
Home repairs
Homebuyer, relocation, and rental assistance
Infrastructure, demolition, and site improvements
In the last five years, the Town has deployed more than $22 million to affordable housing, which is anticipated to support the development of over 350 affordable homes and the preservation of more than 1,000 affordable homes in Chapel Hill.
Town staff will present a recommended funding plan to the Town Council for final approval in April 2024. Access the funding application and learn more here.
The Town’s Affordable Housing and Community Connections Department plans to hold a virtual information session for potential applicants at 1:00 pm Thursday, February 29. Email Emily Holt, Affordable Housing Manager, at eholt@townofchapelhill.org to learn more or register for the information session.
Town Releases Affordable Housing Mid-Year Report
Town staff presented the Fiscal Year 2024 Affordable Housing Mid-year Report to Council on February 14, 2024. The report highlights the Town’s housing needs and provides updates on the Town’s key affordable housing activities as of December 2023.
Highlights from the report for the period from July 1 – December 31, 2023 include:
Council unanimously approved a Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy.
Council approved 1,572 total housing units and 236 affordable units in 4 projects (15%).
The Town awarded $100,000 in funding to the Marian Cheek Jackson Center and Orange County to provide property tax assistance to low-income homeowners.
Council approved the commitment of $715,000 in funding to support the creation of a $20M Affordable Housing Loan Fund.
The Town selected DHIC as the Town’s affordable housing development partner to develop affordable housing on the Town-owned Legion Property.
Council approved a modification to the conditional zoning for the Homestead Gardens project that rightsized the project to the funds available and move toward a fall 2024 construction start.
Tanyard Branch Trace received a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) award for the development of 48 rental housing units on Town-owned land on Jay Street.
The Town supported the development of four affordable units and the preservation of 16 units.
For the remaining half of the fiscal year, staff will focus on working toward key milestones including breaking ground on the redevelopment of the Trinity Court , working with Self-Help to launch the Affordable Housing Loan Fund, and identifying resources to continue implementation of the Affordable Housing Plan.
Town Provides Nearly $100,000 in Property Tax Assistance to Low-Income Homeowners
The Town provided almost $100,000 in property tax assistance to homeowners in Chapel Hill in partnership with the Marian Cheek Jackson Center and Orange County. One-hundred and twenty-eight low-income households were assisted, many of whom were elderly and people of color. See below more details about the Program results.
For more information, contact Town of Chapel Hill Affordable Housing and Community Connections at 919.968.2743 or housingandcommunity@townofchapelhill.org.
Town Makes Progress Towards Establishing $20 Million Affordable Housing Loan Fund, Selects Fund Administrator
On November 29, the Town Council unanimously approved the commitment of $715,000 to establish an Affordable Housing Loan Fund. This funding will supplement an initial $5 million loan from UNC Health that was committed as part of their rezoning approval in June 2023 for a new Medical Office Campus at Eastowne. The combined $5.7 million commitments provide seed funding for an Affordable Housing Loan Fund that will support the acquisition, preservation, and creation of affordable housing in Chapel Hill. With this initial funding in place, a fund administrator will work to attract additional investment with the goal of reaching a fund total of at least $20 Million. The Town expects a fund of that size to support at least 600 affordable housing units.
The Town has selected Self-Help Ventures Fund as the administrator of the Affordable Housing Loan Fund. Self-Help is a leading national Community Development Financial Institute (CDFI) with extensive lending and underwriting experience, as well as affordable housing development experience across the Triangle and state of North Carolina. Self-Help is currently the fund administrator for three other affordable housing loan funds in the Triangle area: Wake County, Durham, and Greensboro.
As Fund Administrator, Self-Help will oversee the review, evaluation, and underwriting of funding applications and the monitoring of all loans issued. The Town will report on the status of the fund as part of their Affordable Housing Quarterly Reporting.
The Town will now work with Self-Help to refine the details of the fund and its loan products with a goal of launching the fund by summer 2024.
Council approves the development of 380 units of affordable housing in 2023
This year, the Town continued to grow a strong pipeline of affordable housing. As of the last Town Council meeting of 2023, the Council approved 381 affordable housing units in market rate developments. This represents nearly 13% of the 3,000 units approved in 8 projects and doubles the Town’s record for the most number of affordable units approved in a single year.
A list of the approved projects and their affordable housing commitment is shown in the table below. Once rezoning for a project is approved, the developer must secure final permits and financing and complete construction, so the approved units are not likely to come online until 2-3 years after approval, or 2026 at the earliest. Applications for the affordable units in the approved projects will be available as projects near completion.
