Affordable Housing Partnerships in Charlotte: How Habitat Is Building Differently
Written by Elsa Conklin, Senior Content Marketing Specialist
From Home Builder to Community Builder
As the need for affordable housing units has grown, it has become increasingly difficult to build that housing. The cost of materials alone has risen substantially, with building material prices up 3.5% year over year, the largest increase since 2023 (National Association of Home Builders). These challenges deepen an already large deficit of affordable housing units in the Charlotte region.
For decades, the traditional Habitat model of single-family, infill-lot homes has provided affordable homeownership for hundreds of families, from Gastonia to Charlotte to Statesville. But as the cost of limited land continues to rise along with the population density in Charlotte and beyond, innovation is critical to creating affordable, high-quality homes families are proud to call their own.
To meet this need, Habitat Charlotte Region has scaled its impact and shifted from building just single-infill-lot homes to being a community builder — building higher-density, multi-unit neighborhoods where families can afford to live in the city they work in.
But as the affordable housing field grows more challenging, Habitat can’t do this work alone.
In the Charlotte Region, a greater shift is taking place: Habitat’s traditional nonprofit building model is broadening into an affordable housing catalyst, thanks to collaboration with for-profit builders and construction partners. These various partnerships have allowed Habitat Charlotte Region to leverage the expertise, scale, efficiency, and innovation of partners to increase affordable housing stock, expanding options for area families.
Why Affordable Housing Needs Collaboration
The housing affordability crisis is ultimately a supply challenge, and demand continues to outpace the number of homes available to working families.
No single organization can solve that challenge on its own.
Habitat’s Builder Partnerships in the Charlotte Region
Thanks to varied models of collaboration with partners from True Homes, D.R. Horton, Hopper Communities, Myers & Chapman, to SteelFab, Habitat Charlotte Region is able to navigate the challenges in the current affordable housing landscape to advance our work and mission.
These partnerships demonstrate that affordable housing opportunities can evolve into a shared responsibility where nonprofits, builders, manufacturers, and community partners each play a role in housing production.
Mixed-Income Neighborhoods With True Homes
This collaboration looks many different ways. With True Homes, this partnership has lasted years. Habitat has purchased completed townhomes from True Homes at discounted prices, allowing Habitat families to purchase move-in-ready homes on their own timeline without waiting for a construction cycle.
That model is expanding at Unity Oaks, a mixed-income multi-family community in east Charlotte. In this neighborhood, True Homes will handle all aspects of development, including environmental work, infrastructure, site development, and vertical construction. Habitat Charlotte Region will then purchase and sell approximately 35 townhomes to qualified homebuyers, while True Homes will market and sell approximately 35 market-rate homes.
Mixed-income housing developments are a strong opportunity for creating affordable homeownership opportunities while leveraging the efficiency and capacity of a large production builder.
“Unity Oaks reflects what can be accomplished when mission-driven organizations and private-sector partners work together to expand access to affordable homeownership. True Homes is proud to partner with Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region on a community that will create meaningful homeownership opportunities in a well-connected area of Charlotte, and we’re excited to see the project moving forward.”
- Ron Staley, Operations Partner – Affordable Housing Initiatives, True Homes Foundation
Faster, Sustainable Construction with D.R. Horton
Collaboration can also help get affordable homes across the finish line, faster.
D.R. Horton is currently supporting the upcoming Harmony Ridge neighborhood near NoDa in Charlotte. In this partnership, D.R. Horton will perform the vertical construction of Habitat homes using highly efficient construction processes and advanced building techniques designed to accelerate production without sacrificing quality. Further advancing the innovation of this particular project is the use of Plantd structural panels, an innovative grass-based building product that represents a new approach to sustainable residential construction.
Scaling Townhome Construction With Hopper Communities
Beyond the physical benefits of building with larger-scale, for-profit builders, collaboration brings other key benefits. In Habitat Charlotte Region’s collaboration with Hopper Communities at the J Julian development in northwest Charlotte, Hopper has led vertical construction at the site. Their expertise in large-scale townhome construction is instrumental to Habitat, streamlining building processes as denser housing becomes more commonplace within the city of Charlotte, due to the rising cost of land and its limited availability.
This critical learning will help Habitat Charlotte Region expand affordable homeownership opportunities while ensuring that the product and build process are fine-tuned and highly efficient.
Commercial Expertise Meets Affordable Housing with Myers & Chapman and SteelFab
Other collaborations blend more traditional partnership models by applying commercial construction expertise to affordable housing. Myers & Chapman and SteelFab are collaborating on the construction of a duplex in the upcoming Mystic Pines neighborhood in east Charlotte.
Beyond financial support, employees from both organizations will participate directly in construction activities, beginning with the fabrication of structural panels at Habitat’s Woodpark facility and culminating in a volunteer build focused on framing, windows, and roofing. Blending financial support, volunteer engagement, and construction expertise, this partnership provides a meaningful engagement with Habitat’s affordable housing mission while allowing the two companies’ construction expertise to embolden and better our own processes.
For Marcus Rabun, CEO of Myers & Chapman, the opportunity to apply their expertise to the affordable housing realm is meaningful:
“Through my involvement with Habitat over the last several years, I’ve seen firsthand the impact affordable homeownership can have on families and on our community. As builders, we have the opportunity to put what we do every day to work for a real need here in the Charlotte region. Myers & Chapman is proud to work alongside Habitat, SteelFab, and our industry partners to help more families have the opportunity to own a home and build long-term stability.”
- Marcus Rabun, President & CEO, Myers & Chapman
Innovation Meets Affordable Housing: The 2028 Housing Innovation Summit
Building on the momentum of other innovation-focused strategies to building affordable homes, Habitat is excited to be participating in the Housing Innovation Challenge in its return to Charlotte.
Featuring 18 affordable homes designed and built by teams of architecture and engineering students, these teams will collaborate with local and national builders to bring them to life. Habitat Charlotte Region will contribute half of the homesites, and the City of Charlotte will provide the remaining homesites.
Not only will the homes chart new paths to innovation in building materials, methods, and sustainability practices, but finished homes will also be made available to qualified homebuyers through Habitat’s Homebuyer Program.
Build With Us
Affordable housing is a supply challenge, and supply takes more than one builder. Across the Charlotte region, Habitat for Humanity is showing what that looks like in practice: True Homes bringing mixed-income neighborhoods to scale, D.R. Horton accelerating construction with new materials and methods, Hopper Communities sharing townhome expertise, and Myers & Chapman and SteelFab putting commercial know-how and volunteer hands to work for local families.
Each partnership looks different, but they share one idea: when nonprofits, builders, manufacturers, and the city each do what they do best, more families can afford to own a home in the community where they work.
The need is still growing, and we’re not finished. If your company builds, manufactures, finances, designs, or simply wants to help families put down roots in the Charlotte Region, there’s a place for you in this work. Whether through a construction partnership, a land or materials contribution, a volunteer build, or financial support, your expertise can help combat this affordable housing shortage.
Let’s build what’s next, together.
