In partnership with
and community partners across Hampton Roads
and community partners across Hampton Roads
We're creating the city's first permanently affordable Community Land Trust homeownership, so the families who keep Newport News running can own here, stay here, and build wealth here. Not for a season. For generations.
and community partners across Hampton Roads
Charity Means Love Foundation (CMLF) is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2023 and the first independent Community Land Trust in Newport News, Virginia. We exist to combat displacement and gentrification, and to build neighborhoods where families can put down roots and stay for generations.
Across Hampton Roads, rising land costs and speculation push longtime residents out of the very neighborhoods they helped build. We take a different path. We keep decisions close to the people our work serves, with residents, neighbors, and local leaders helping shape what gets built and for whom. And we make homes affordable not just once, but permanently.
We're young, focused, and moving. Our first homes are under active development, our partnerships are growing, and our 2025 to 2035 strategic plan charts the road to 50 permanently affordable homes across the city.
To build permanent, community-rooted affordable homeownership in Newport News, Virginia, removing land from the speculative market so homes remain affordable today, tomorrow, and across generations.
Community leaders with deep roots in housing, finance, and Hampton Roads.
A Community Land Trust separates the cost of the land from the cost of the home. That one idea changes everything.
The trust owns the land beneath each home and holds it for the community, removing it from the speculative market for good.
Homeowners build equity, gain stability, and pass on opportunity, at a price working families can actually reach.
A 99-year ground lease and a built-in resale formula keep every home affordable for the next family, and the next.
We serve households earning 80 to 120 percent of Area Median Income: neighbors who are priced out of the market yet earn too much to qualify for traditional assistance.
We're building toward a Land Bank to acquire vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties and return them to productive use as permanently affordable homes.
Where we can, we invest in the shared spaces that make a neighborhood whole: community gardens, gathering spaces, and programs that support health, wellness, and connection.
Our first pilot is advancing through property conveyance, feasibility, design, and City and NNRHA review. The plan is to create one permanently affordable Community Land Trust home, paired with a community-informed green space that puts the rest of the site to good use. Final design, approvals, and property transfer are still in progress.
The balance of the site is planned as a productive green space focused on food growing and self-sufficiency. What it becomes, and who it serves, will be shaped through a community engagement series before any development begins.
Our 2025 to 2035 strategic plan guides our growth, governance, and community impact, with a goal of 50 permanently affordable homes across Newport News.
LISC Virginia supports CMLF's organizational capacity and predevelopment planning, and is the confirmed Presenting Sponsor of ROOTED: A Housing Empowerment Summit.
Building stronger connections between local developers, housing professionals, community partners, and the resources needed to move projects forward.
CMLF's Community Developer Roundtables provide a consistent space for emerging and experienced developers to share what they are working on, discuss common barriers, exchange knowledge, and identify opportunities for collaboration.
These conversations will also help document the challenges affecting development in Newport News and connect participants with relevant information, partners, and technical resources.
Please confirm the current meeting location when registering.
Whether you're planning your first project or you've been building for years, there's a seat at the table for you.
Sign Up for a RoundtableNewport News is a majority-renter city. We exist to change what ownership looks like here, block by block, family by family.
A free, community-centered day of learning, connection, and resources, built so every neighbor leaves with something learned, someone met, and a clear path to a resource.
Presented by Charity Means Love Foundation, Empower All, and the East End Civic Association.
Presenting Sponsor: LISC Virginia.
Our free housing empowerment summit is open for registration. Reserve your spot, bring the family, and join a day built for the community.
Register free →Following an early predevelopment meeting with the City of Newport News, we refined our 32nd Street pilot to one permanently affordable home paired with a community-informed green space. A community engagement series comes first.
CMLF presented the Community Land Trust model at a TowneBank Lunch & Learn, part of the community education and lender relationships that make permanently affordable homeownership possible.
Our Founder joins a statewide panel on women emerging as housing developers and the future of housing in Virginia.
Lend your skills to a movement. We have active needs in digital communications, grant research, event support, community outreach, and operations.
Reach out →Share your knowledge on a flexible basis, without the formal commitments of board service. Guidance, connections, and insight all move us forward.
Reach out →Follow us and share our work with someone who deserves to know this opportunity exists. Every conversation opens a door.
Find us online →Your gift funds the homebuyer education and community outreach that connects working families to permanently affordable homeownership, and helps our first homes welcome their first families.
Funds outreach materials that connect families to affordable homeownership opportunities.
Funds homebuyer education that prepares future CLT homeowners for long-term success.
Supports the community partnerships that make this work sustainable.
Supporting the summit instead? Give to ROOTED: A Housing Empowerment Summit →
Charity Means Love Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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Charity Means Love Foundation is a proud member of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber.
Charity Means Love Foundation is a proud member of the Hampton Roads Housing Consortium.