Tiny Homes A Big Help for Those Stepping Out of Homelessness in Chapel Hill

The Church of the Advocate’s 15-acre campus in northern Chapel Hill houses the old church, the reverend’s residence, a large pond and, now, a cluster of three affordable homes: each a cozy 320 square feet.

The three units, organized by local affordable housing collaborative Pee Wee Homes, are currently nearing completion. At the construction site, Orange County Habitat for Humanity and church volunteers are finishing up the exterior wall paneling and roofing on each of the one-bedroom houses.

Maggie West, an affordable housing advocate and former co-director of Community Empowerment Fund, has been working on this project for several years. She said affordable housing continues to be a crisis in Chapel Hill. West is a founding board member of Pee Wee Homes, a group of housing advocates looking to increase the supply of affordable housing in the area by building small units which make efficient use of available space and can fit into plots of land other developments cannot.

Pee Wee Homes also addresses another issue facing many folks transiting from homelessness, social isolation.

“We were also seeing people move out of homelessness but then sometimes ending up without a community around them and feeling pretty isolated and lonely, really,” West said.

West said community plays a big part in how Pee Wee Homes looks at providing housing. Each of the homes comes with a small porch that West says is an important feature for fostering. Additionally, the Church of the Advocate’s Reverend Lisa Fischbeck is very excited to receive the new neighbors, though they are not required at all to attend church programming.

The three units next to the church are the second project Pee Wee Homes has undertaken. In Spring 2018, the first Pee Wee Homes were constructed in Northside.

And when these three units are completed – expected to be sometime in late Spring, West said with crossed-fingers – they’ll be looking to expand into the next project. Ideally, these homes here might serve to spread the word about Pee Wee Home’s innovative efforts to build affordable housing in unconventional areas.

Fischbeck says she hopes the completion of this project gets residents, religious leaders and town officials thinking about new ways to combat local housing challenges.

“There are some churches that are starting to express interest, and we’re having this celebration, and we hope folks from some of the other church will come and have a look.” Reverend Fischbeck said.” And not just churches, but any community of faith or really any land-holder could do this.”

Applicants must have a monthly income of between $400 and 30 percent of area median income, which is roughly $1200, according to West.

The construction cost of these three homes is estimated to be around $160,000, West said. The Chapel Hill affordable housing reserve contributed $70,000 and $38,000 from UNC professor Jim Kitchen’s Kenan-Flagler Business School entrepreneurship students who raised the money over two semesters. Kitchen’s students are expected to present another check estimated at $40,000 for future Pee Wee Homes projects at an event this weekend. Kitchen is a part owner of WCHL.

This Sunday, the Advocate and Pee Wee Homes will be celebrating the near-completion of construction from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the church off Homestead Road. You can check out the homes then, and organizers will be answering questions and talking about future efforts to fill the affordable housing gap in the area.