Merin Road at Church of the Advocate

Craig Street

Mitchell Lane

Our mission is to create dignified, affordable, tiny homes
in caring community for and with people transitioning out of homelessness.

Brick by Brick: Building Foundations

By supporting Pee Wee Homes in our campaign, you build literal and figurative foundations. In 2025, we will increase the number of physical homes we are able to offer to our neighbors. Together we will create and nurture the fundamental connections that enable Residents to build a lifelong community.

Homes

Our current home models include permanent foundations and infrastructure investments of water and sewer ranging from 260-400 square feet. We have 1-bedroom and studio detached units and duplex units which maximize the buildable area of small lots while keeping with the character of the surrounding neighborhood. The homes incorporate significant sustainable energy up-fitting and creative interior design to make a highly livable, comfortable home space. A few of our units are ADA accessible, and we seek to incorporate as many universal design features as possible into all of our units to ensure our homes are healthy and livable for the longterm.

Community

We partner with local faith communities, other nonprofit organizations, and community members to build networks and communities of mutual support with our residents. All of the prospective neighbors have their own unique talents and gifts they can bring to their new community, and likewise, benefit uniquely from attentive, caring support from their neighbors. We also see participatory governance from the residents as key to the stability of our housing and supportive programming.

Equity

Neighbors living in PeeWee Homes pay a monthly rent based on a sliding scale not to exceed 30% of their income. Within each monthly rent payment will be an equity-building deposit held in escrow for the renter – to use as a cushion in emergencies or to transition to their next home. In addition to building equity for the tenant, rental payments provide for maintenance costs to ensure that dwellings remain high-quality, safe places to call home.

“You’ve got people who’ve got low income, people on fixed income, older people, homeless people, people that are handicapped, they need a place to go. Most of them want to get off the street. That’s what I’d like to see, someone they can go and call their own.” — Nathaniel Lee, Resident and Founding Board Member

“It’s been a joy and a privilege to witness the beauty of this justice at work–to see the residents of PWH living in a diverse, proud, and connected community that is Northside.” — George Barrett, Marian Cheek Jackson Center Executive Director

“The Pee Wee homes on Craig Street have been a great addition to the neighborhood and the residents have become an active and essential part of this community. It is exciting to see rental housing that is this affordable and this is also the best use of a challenging lot that we have worked to figure out for over a year.” — Kathy Atwater, MCJC Community Advocacy Specialist

“We know that these new homes bring peace of mind to their new residents and hope that this project will inspire others in our community to think about helping to create even more affordable housing in Chapel Hill.” — Pam Hemminger, Mayor of Chapel Hill

“The people that live in these homes–I know them. I see the pride in their faces when they come to the doors of their own homes. We need to build these homes, and we need to build more of them.” — Ron Carnes, Community Organizer

“These values only count if we live them. We cannot claim to be inclusive and diverse if folks really can’t afford to live here unless they fit within an increasingly shrinking subset of wealth and race and class. This is an opportunity to put our values into action.” — Alice Jacoby, VP of Policy & Advocacy, Habitat for Humanity of Orange County

“This project is a beautiful way to show our kids that not only do we take care of the vulnerable people in our community, but we show them respect and dignity. We’re really excited about the potential to have this project right on our street.” — Heather Ferrell, Architect, Nomad Design Collaborative & Northside Neighbor

“This is going to be yet another small miracle that happens in Chapel Hill… Unless [there is] safe accessible affordable housing, trying to infuse quality of life is just so incredibly hard. This is the foundation in which communities are made.” Pat Sprigg, President and CEO of Carol Woods Retirement Community

“I think the Pee Wee Homes initiative is a great thing that people are trying to do to help Pee Wee and people like him have a safe, clean affordable place to live… We need more initiatives and projects like that in our time.” — Holly Dedmond, Chapel Hill Sportswear Store Manager