The City is providing the land. Philanthropy builds the homes. Rent and reserves keep them standing.
The 12 acres belong to the City of Cumming, and the City is providing the site through a long-term ground lease. That means not one donated dollar buys dirt. Every gift goes into the ground work and the homes.
The capital stack
Where the $12 million development budget comes from.
Private gifts are the only flexible dollars in the stack. They fund the work that has to happen before any other source will commit, and they provide the local match that public financing requires.
The budget
Beyond that reserve, staff, supportive services, insurance, and operating costs are budgeted separately and funded on an ongoing basis.
Building the neighborhood is half the promise.
Operating and replacement reserves will be capitalized at the outset, so that HVAC systems, water heaters, roofing, and other major systems are funded for replacement before they fail. A neighborhood that cannot be maintained is not a gift to anyone.
Resident rent covers part of annual operating costs. The rest comes from ongoing philanthropy, grants, and partnerships, and from legacy gifts that sustain the community long after it is built.
Why do you need my money if the government is involved?
Because the government is doing a different part of the job. The City of Cumming is contributing the land, which is the single largest asset in this project and one philanthropy would otherwise have to buy. Public funding, where we win it, is restricted and slow, and it arrives only after the local commitment is already in place. Private gifts are what let us move: they pay for the design, the engineering, and the site work that has to happen before anything else can, and they are the only dollars in this project that can go wherever the need is greatest.
