Country music star Eric Church to buy more land to house Helene victims

North Carolina native Eric Church, a bonafide country music star from Caldwell County, seeks to buy more land before even breaking ground on his first allotment to construct homes for victims of Hurricane Helene.

In February, Church purchased a 30-acre plot with plans for a 40-50 home development for displaced hurricane victims through his non-profit, Chief Cares. The foundation, founded by Church and his wife, Katherine, is set to be break ground on the development in April, but that isn’t stopping Church from moving forward on a second development. 

Chief Cares said they are already looking at two additional plots of land nearby to assist more Helene survivors, according to WBTV.  

The original development in Avery County just outside Newland has been sold out by Helene survivors. The plot will include homes with water and sewer and a road throughout the neighborhood. Church also hopes to build a community center and a walking trail, according to reports. 

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we have a lot of support to get the job done,” James Eury with Avery County Long-Term Recovery Group told WBTV. 

Church was also one of the headline performers at Concert for Carolina in October, a benefit that raised nearly $25 million for Helene victims. He performed alongside Luke Combs, James Taylor, Keith Urban, Bailey Zimmerman, Scotty McCreery, and others just one month after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, east Tennessee, and parts of other states.

The event drew over 82,000 attendees, and the proceeds were split between Church and Combs for relief efforts. During the concert, Church announced his plan to use his share of the funds to build 100 homes in 100 days. The homes in Avery County are part of this initiative.

Church and Combs were recently honored with the Country Radio Seminar (CRS) 2025 Artist Humanitarian Award for assisting Helene victims. Church expressed his discomfort with receiving the award. 

“I’m incredibly uncomfortable with an award like this,” said Church. “A mentor of mine said a long time ago, ‘You should never think about what you get from doing the right thing. You should just do the right thing.’ And in this regard, this was the right thing. I’ve played a lot of shows in my career, and that night in Charlotte was the top of the list for me, as far as special shows go. The artists that gave creatively, their time, the collection of artists, the challenges we had, and the crowd that responded to it will forever be the greatest show I’ve played.”

Combs, a native of Asheville, NC, said, “This was the right thing to do, puttin’ the show on; there was never once a thought that we weren’t gonna do this.”

Church has dubbed his initiative “A Blueprint for the Blue Ridge.”

“We are going to start by immediately building homes for 100 families in Avery County and the surrounding areas, and keeping these communities preserved and rebuilt,” according to the website. Learn more here about housing assistance through Chief Cares.

“In this country, we react to a disaster, and then inevitably, another disaster happens and we move on to it,” concluded Church. “The people in North Carolina and what’s happened there… it’s not gonna be remedied in the next 5 or 10 years. So I think (it’s important to) keep a focus on it and be cognizant that this is going to be something that we’re going to see through.”

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