A two-thirds-acre plot of city-owned land at 15 Summit Avenue in Raleigh is set to become a permanent home for veterans who have struggled to keep stable housing, with 10 small homes planned around a shared pavilion for laundry and community gatherings. The project, still in the planning and permitting stage, is aiming for a Veterans Day 2027 opening, and organizers hope it becomes the first of many such developments in the city.
The village is a partnership between Operation Coming Home and CASA, according to The News & Observer. Operation Coming Home, a nonprofit initiative of the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County and the U.S. Veterans Corps, has traditionally built custom homes for individual combat-wounded veterans, while CASA is a Triangle nonprofit that develops affordable rental housing. Founded in 2007, Operation Coming Home had constructed and donated 29 mortgage-free “Hero Homes” for wounded service members through late 2025, according to the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County, a track record that the Raleigh project extends into permanent multi-unit supportive housing.
CASA, established in 1992 out of a Wake County mental health program, now owns and manages nearly 700 affordable rental units across the Triangle, including Hull's Landing, a dedicated veteran housing community near WakeMed in Raleigh, according to CASA. The nonprofit's residents typically pay about 30% of their income toward rent while receiving wrap-around case management, the same model planned for the Summit Avenue site.
How the City Cleared the Way
Getting to this point took years of municipal groundwork. The city originally issued a request for proposals for the 0.67-acre site in May 2023 that drew only one submission, prompting Raleigh to reissue the call in December 2024. In April 2025, city staff recommended CASA's cottage-court tiny-home proposal over three competing bids for the parcel, per city records.
Before that could happen, Raleigh City Council voted in February 2024 to rezone the site and remove its Urban Limited frontage designation, a regulatory change that cleared the way for cottage courts and tiny homes on the small urban lot. The project also relies on Raleigh's Missing Middle land-use regulations, which permit cottage courts — clusters of small single-family homes around shared open space — to boost infill housing density without full apartment buildings.
Once complete, the village will provide 10 permanent homes of about 400 square feet each, including two fully accessible units for veterans with disabilities. Rents will be based on residents' incomes: four homes will be reserved for residents earning up to 30% of the Raleigh area median income, two for those earning up to 60%, and four for those earning up to 50%, according to The News & Observer. The 2026 Raleigh area median income is $92,700 for a one-person household.
A Veteran's Long Road to Stability
The need is personal for people like Gaetano Del Giudice, a 59-year-old who served three years in the Army as a short-range missile crew member. Del Giudice moved to North Carolina in 2021 and later became homeless again after increased disability benefits pushed his income above a housing program's eligibility limit, per The News & Observer's reporting. He has experienced depression, PTSD and anxiety, and said maintaining housing stability while managing mental and physical health problems can be difficult.
Wake County has more than 50,000 veterans — more than any other county in North Carolina — and as of August 18, 21 unhoused veterans were receiving services through the county or its partners, according to the same report. Once built, veterans will be referred to the Summit Avenue village through the VA health care system, Wake County Veterans Services, and Veterans Bridge Home. Wake County Veterans Services also provides housing assistance directly through 919-212-VETS.
A Model Borrowed From Pittsboro
The Summit Avenue project draws inspiration from the Farm at Penny Lane, a tiny-home village in Pittsboro built on a 40-acre therapeutic farm through a partnership among the UNC School of Social Work, the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, and Cross Disability Services Inc. The Pittsboro homes, about 400 square feet each, cost roughly $50,000 to build through partnerships with Garman Homes and NC State's Design + Build program, according to 5 West Magazine.
The Farm at Penny Lane now has 15 tiny homes and gives priority to veterans for five of them, serving people living with severe and persistent mental illness, particularly those on fixed incomes. Residents there pay about one-third of their income in rent and have access to gardening, animal care, art, music, yoga and meditation programming through the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health.
Catherine, who moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania in 2018, became the Farm at Penny Lane's first resident in July 2025 after receiving mental health services through UNC for schizoaffective disorder. She was later diagnosed with kidney cancer. Amy Wilson is studying outcomes at the Pittsboro village, and Thava Mahadevan, quoted in The News & Observer's reporting, put the philosophy behind these projects simply: housing is healthcare.
In May 2021, regional managed care organization Alliance Health committed $100,000 in capital funding to build two tiny homes at the Farm at Penny Lane for individuals with serious mental illness transitioning out of homelessness, with staff also contributing volunteer labor.
Part of a Broader Local and National Push
The Raleigh village fits into a wider continuum of homelessness response already taking shape in Wake County. The Oak City Cares center connects people experiencing homelessness with housing, meals and health services, while the South Wilmington Street Center provides transitional shelter and services for men, and Women Veterans Support Services offers emergency shelter to women veterans. Wake County also opened Second Street Place, a low-barrier shelter operated by The Bryant Center, in January 2025 as part of a county strategy to cut unsheltered homelessness by 10% by 2029.
North Carolina counted 752 veterans experiencing homelessness in January 2025, per U.S. HUD data, part of a national total of 32,495 — a figure that marked a 1.2% annual decrease and a 56.1% reduction since 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Federal support for permanent housing has also grown: in July 2025, HUD and the VA announced a $33 million national expansion of HUD-VASH vouchers, which pair rental assistance with VA clinical support services, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
Raleigh's project joins a growing list of similar efforts nationally, including a tiny-home village for local vets in Knox County and a $32 million project recently announced in North Sacramento. For now, the Summit Avenue site remains in planning and permitting, with organizers describing it as intended to be the first of many permanent housing options for veterans in need across Raleigh.
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