Community Housing Partners (CHP) and local partners gathered on Thursday, Nov. 13, to celebrate the groundbreaking of Stroubles Ridge, a new neighborhood that will expand homeownership opportunities in Blacksburg, Virginia. The event marked a major milestone for a development designed to help address ongoing housing affordability challenges in the New River Valley.
Located on a 24-acre site along Merrimac Road, Stroubles Ridge will include single-family homes and possibly duplexes developed in phases. CHP began installing infrastructure in 2024, and the first two homes are now set on their foundations and under construction. The first phase will include 20 homes, all built using modular construction to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and deliver consistent quality. (View photos of the first two homes on Facebook.)
When complete, the neighborhood will include dozens of homes that will become part of the New River Home Trust (NRHT), a community land trust managed by CHP. Through this model, homeowners purchase their home while the land remains in the NRHT, ensuring long-term affordability and preserving access to homeownership for future generations.
CHP’s Jake Powell speaks at the Stroubles Ridge groundbreaking.
“Stroubles Ridge represents years of partnership, planning, and persistence,” said Jake Powell, Director of Homeownership at CHP. “This 24-acre site along Merrimac Road will soon become a new neighborhood … designed with comfort, quality, and sustainability in mind.”
Powell emphasized the importance of the development for families who have struggled to find attainable options in Blacksburg’s competitive market. “Today is about more than just breaking ground,” Powell said at the event. “It’s about taking a meaningful step toward a more inclusive and balanced housing landscape in Blacksburg, one that gives more people the chance to put down roots in the community they love.”
The Stroubles Ridge development is supported by several partners and funding sources. The Town of Blacksburg and Montgomery County helped make the project possible with investments of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME funds, as well as a 2021 boundary adjustment that made the Stroubles Ridge property eligible for these funding sources. Additional support came from the Housing Innovations in Energy Efficiency (HIEE) program, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and Congressional Directed Spending.
Blacksburg Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith spoke at the event and underscored the role Stroubles Ridge will play in creating a more balanced and accessible housing landscape. “Housing affordability is one of the defining challenges of our time — here in Blacksburg, across the New River Valley, and in communities across the country,” she said. “We regularly hear from residents who want to live here, who work here, who raise their families here but who struggle to find a home they can afford.”
Powell discusses the planned homes at Stroubles Ridge with Blacksburg officials.
The mayor added, “By creating attainable homeownership opportunities, this development fills a critical gap in our housing landscape. For many families, owning a home here in Blacksburg has felt out of reach, but thanks to Community Housing Partners and the New River Home Trust, these homes will remain within reach not just for the first buyers, but for future generations as well.”
Kim Thurlow, Housing and Community Connections Manager for the Town of Blacksburg, highlighted the significance of the location and the long-term benefits the neighborhood will provide. Speaking to WDBJ Channel 7 News during the event, she said, “It provides a first step on the homeownership ladder for many, many people where they can remain here for their life or they can use it as a stepping stone for another home.”
Stroubles Ridge is expected to deliver its first group of homes in the coming years. For CHP and its partners, the groundbreaking represented not just the start of construction, but a long-term commitment to expanding opportunities for families to put down roots in the New River Valley.
Founded in 1975, Community Housing Partners (CHP) provides quality-built, responsibly managed, service-enriched homes for low-income individuals and families across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Through its mission to create homes and communities that are healthy, sustainable, and affordable, CHP has been a leading advocate of affordable housing development for 50 years. CHP’s activities include real estate development, construction, energy services and training, asset management, property management, realty and homeownership, and comprehensive resident services.
Earlier this month, the first two homes at Stroubles Ridge were placed on their foundations.