By Freda Freeman
Correspondent
CHAPEL HILL – A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held April 25 to celebrate the near-completion of a 10-unit multifamily apartment building in the historic African American neighborhood of Pine Knoll.
Pine Knoll EMPOWERment Affordable Community Housing, or P.E.A.C.H., Apartments, which has been in the planning since 2019, is designed to provide Orange County’s most vulnerable populations with comfortable, quality, affordable housing. The apartments are geared toward essential workers who don’t earn enough to afford conventional housing but make too much to be eligible for housing vouchers.
P.E.A.C.H. is the first new construction affordable housing project developed by EMPOWERment Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 that focuses on affordable housing, grassroots economic development and community organizing. Located on Johnson Street, the apartments are built on land purchased by five African American women: Delores Bailey, La Tanya Davis, Sarita Nwachukwu, Sharron Reid and Valencia Thompson. Together, they have more than 50 years of experience in community service and development.
EMPOWERment has provided affordable housing rentals since 2005, with 63 apartment units throughout Orange County that rent to residents who earn 80% of the area median income down to those who receive housing vouchers. P.E.A.C.H. is the group’s first multifamily, multigenerational rental apartment building.
“P.E.A.C.H. is special. These apartments are geared toward those we know are really struggling to find someplace they can afford in Chapel Hill. We’re trying to address essential workers, many of whom are commuting 45 minutes to an hour to get to work. This isn’t just about Chapel Hill; this is about all Orange County essential workers that want to live in a safe, affordable place,” EMPOWERment Executive Director Delores Bailey said.
“That is our impetus for these apartments, to plant P.E.A.C.H. in downtown Chapel Hill and make it affordable. Nobody was building for EMPOWERment or the people we serve, so I said we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”
Thompson, EMPOWERment’s project manager, agreed.
“It’s a significant project because I don’t know if there are any other ones that offer rent at 30% AMI. There are income-based projects, but they’re not just at 30%. That’s going to make housing available to your average worker that works for a restaurant, the university workers, hospital workers, those who make minimum wage.”
The apartment complex is debt free. EMPOWERment raised $3.9 million with support from the town of Chapel Hill, Orange County, other government entities, numerous organizations, community partners and individual donors.
P.E.A.C.H. Apartments include two studio, four one-bedroom, three two-bedroom and one three-bedroom units. The average monthly rent is $600, with the studio renting for $500 and the three-bedroom unit for $900. Utilities are included in rent.
“It’s amazing, we can’t wait. When it first came into concept, we always tell our executive director she has these big pie-in-the-sky ideas, and just to see it come to fruition, it’s an amazing feeling that it’s going to actually happen,” Thompson said.
The inspiration for P.E.A.C.H. stemmed from the vision of Ted Parris, a Pine Knoll community board president, who was disturbed that gentrification was displacing African American neighborhoods. Parris wanted people to be able to live where they work, said Leah Adeniji, EMPOWERment’s deputy director.
“P.E.A.C.H. is really intended, as our executive director puts, to be a transformative force in the fight for affordable housing, because it is a critical step for us in making housing in Chapel Hill and Orange County accessible for everyone,” Adeniji said. “It’s our commitment to create more opportunities for affordable housing, but, in general, we want to make sure the community is heard, recognized and included. It is richer when there is full representation of everyone there, and people deserve to be here.”
