Eric Church’s Chief Cares Breaks Ground On Housing Development To Aid Hurricane Survivors

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Pictured (L-R): Justin DeSpain and Matt Belcher (Clayton Homes), Ruth Shirley (Avery Long Term Recovery Group), Christian Bigsby (SVP Workplace Resources, Cisco), Eric Church, Governor Stein and Luke Howe (local partner, AMY Wellness Foundation) break ground at Blue Haven Community in Avery County North Carolina. Photo: Courtesy of Chief Cares

Eric Church‘s Chief Cares, the nonprofit he founded with wife Katherine in 2013, has officially broken ground on its first mid-to-long-term housing development to support families displaced by Hurricane Helene.

Dubbed Blue Haven, the development is located in Avery County, North Carolina—an area close to Church’s heart and home. Blue Haven will offer roughly 45 homes across a mix of one to three bedroom floorplans, and work is already underway, with families expected to move in by late summer. Chief Cares and its partners are acquiring the land, preparing the infrastructure and building the homes, and selected families’ housing expenses will be financially assisted to allow them to live affordably for up to three years while they rebuild their lives. At the end of that term, families will have the option to purchase their homes, with support from Chief Cares in accessing any available resources.

Eric Church addresses media and local community members on Friday, April 11, 2025 ahead of breaking ground on the Chief Cares Blue Haven community, home to 45 new homes to help North Carolina residents post Hurricane Helene. Photo: Courtesy of Chief Cares

“The land we stand on today sits in the heart of a county that has meant so much to me,” Church said during the event on April 11. “This is a place my family and I are proud to call home… Mountain people, my people.”

Following Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of Western North Carolina in September 2024, Chief Cares shifted its mission to address the need of keeping people in their communities once disaster strikes. Focused on providing families a path to stability, homeownership and dignity, the effort is being launched under a new initiative called “Blueprint for the Blue Ridge,” a scalable model for disaster recovery rooted in housing, community and mid-to-long-term support.

“We realized that keeping the people in their communities after disaster was a problem with no real solution. We wanted to change that,” Church says. “This is truly a hand up, not a handout. Dignity and community are key to the long-term success of the Blueprint.”

Chief Cares has plans to expand into neighboring counties, with the ultimate goal of creating a national model for disaster recovery rooted in permanence, pride and place.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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