As Chapel Hill continues to seek solutions for its affordable housing shortage, one nonprofit is taking the effort into its own hands.
After redeveloping and renting houses for many years, EMPOWERment Inc. is set to go one step further and build its own apartment building for low-income community members.
“Once we get this done, there’s no reason for people to think you can’t do it,” says Delores Bailey, as she walks across the plot of land at 107 Johnson Street.
As the executive director of EMPOWERment, Bailey has long been involved in finding or providing homes to help people become more secure and sufficient within the area. The organization maintains dozens of properties in Orange County for renters who earn 30 to 60 percent of the Area Median Income, or AMI.
Years ago, though, she was approached by Ted Parrish: a resident in the Pine Knolls neighborhood, which was historically a Black community. Parrish and his wife, Virginia Barbee, started the Pine Knolls Community Housing Program to keep houses and properties from being bought by outside developers. Bailey says Parrish wanted to partner with EMPOWERment to build more housing for low-income families and neighbors. Eventually, he offered the property where his Pine Knolls Community Center sat on Johnson Street.
The plot of land at 107 Johnson Street where the Pine Knolls Community Center previously sat. The land was sold to EMPOWERment, and the town conveyed the playground and basketball courts to the nonprofit too.
“Dr. Parrish had talked about doing something with the land,” says Bailey, “and I was like, ‘There’s no way, this little-bitty organization, how can we [do something?]’ But then, after the land started coming together and we did get the conveyance from the Town of Chapel Hill, it was like, ‘Why can’t we? Somebody’s got to do it, why isn’t it EMPOWERment?’
“And who else has the pulse of this community around housing like EMPOWERment,” she asks. “There isn’t anybody who knows it better than we know it.”
That was the start of the PEACH Apartment buildings – which is short for Pine Knolls EMPOWERment Affordable Community Housing. Now, the project is nearly ready to break ground.
Delores Bailey stands inside EMPOWERment Inc. headquarters next to a poster explaining the mission of PEACH Apartments and a concept design of one of the project’s buildings.
The PEACH Apartments have been a project long in the works for EMPOWERment, but represents the first undertaking where the nonprofit will build housing from the ground up.
Bailey’s organization is close to reaching its goal of $3.5 million to pay for ten units on the Johnson Street plot. The development earned unanimous approval from the Chapel Hill Town Council in 2022 and aims to begin preparing for construction this fall.
EMPOWERment will be renting out the units to community members earning at or below 30 percent of the area median income. While she says people have questioned the likelihood of that population existing in Chapel Hill and Carrboro before, Bailey insists these are critical members of the community: grocery store and retail workers, teaching assistants, janitors, and others working jobs that may go unnoticed.
“Here’s the question I get all the time now,” says Bailey. “‘Is there anybody making $7.50 an hour?’ Yes, there are a lot of people. Covid drove prices, drove incomes up – but not for people who are already educationally challenged, don’t have any job experience, [or] they’re living and driving 45 minutes [away].
“Those $12 an hour jobs are not for everybody,” she adds. “And even $12 an hour is not enough money to afford rent here in Chapel Hill.”
In addition to stressing that PEACH Apartments will be for these working residents, Bailey similarly stresses it will be more than just a roof over their heads. PEACH will be ADA accessible and have up to three-bedroom units for families – often with more space than other apartments around town. There will be a parking area, but also a bus shelter for those looking to use public transportation. A gazebo and playground will be at the back of the site, as well as a rain garden designed by the North Carolina Botanical Gardens that will serve as its stormwater component.
An aerial site plan showing the layout of the PEACH Apartment community at 107 Johnson Street as submitted to the Town of Chapel Hill. The ten apartment units will be built in an area to the right, which presently is trees and undeveloped land. The parking lot, playground, raingarden and gazebo are set to be constructed on the site formerly known as the Pine Knolls Community Center property.
From the development side, Bailey says there’s another detail that makes the PEACH project stand out: EMPOWERment wants to build the apartments debt-free in order to keep the rents low. With its fundraising efforts, the nonprofit plans to reach that goal before shovels go into the ground.
“Understand, we are building for the lowest-of-low working income folks,” describes Bailey. “And then if we brought with that some debt, when we’re building for these apartment buildings, a piece of that has to go to pay a mortgage. We cannot offer the low rents that we are offering [if] we’ve got a debt to pay on top of that.”
PEACH is in the process of determining how it will open and field applications to all Orange County residents. And while there is a long process of constructing the buildings ahead, Bailey already has her sights set on future opportunities to build similar housing around the Pine Knolls neighborhood. It’s ambitious – but to her, it represents the latest evolution of how EMPOWERment is aiming to address the local housing supply for low-income Chapel Hill community members.
“‘I’m a good person, why can’t I find any place to live?’ No one should ever have to feel like that,” says Bailey. “No one should ever have to wonder – as they’re getting up in the morning, getting dressed, sleeping in their car, but going to work every morning – [if] they can find a place to live. That’s ridiculous.
“As Chapel Hill [and] as Orange County grow,” she continues, “EMPOWERment is always going to be the one there building that housing for 30-80 percent [AMI] because we know the need.”
Back at the Johnson Street site, Bailey says she also hopes the project can set an example for other developers and local organizations too. She says PEACH will aim to provide a blueprint of how to create housing that fits within the community’s existing character while enhancing what affordable options are offered in town.
As she surveys the plot, she envisions what it may look like in the next year or two after construction is finished and residents have moved in.
“This is going to be something major, for all of this community to be really proud of,” Bailey says.
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