Thirteen cottage-style homes for single mothers and their children experiencing homelessness opened Oct. 13 off New Shackle Island Road in Hendersonville, and families have already moved in.

Grace Place, a Sumner County nonprofit, held a ribbon-cutting that day to mark the completion of Phase 1 of its Grace Place Amplified campus. The milestone includes the 13 homes and a new childcare facility called Makayla's Promise Children's Center, Main Street Media of Tennessee reported.

Hundreds of people gathered on the property for the ceremony, according to Grace Place founder and CEO Desnéige Bourret. Areas covered in straw marked where 30 additional homes will go in Phase 2, visible to the crowd as it gathered outside the children's center.

"I love that people could actually see those spaces during the ribbon cutting," Bourret said, according to Main Street Media. "They are a visible reminder that while we have accomplished something extraordinary, we are not finished."

Grace Place purchased the property in 2022. The nonprofit has spent more than a decade serving single mothers and their children, offering housing, life-skills classes, mentorship and community meals. Bourret said the expansion was born from years of having to turn away families the organization lacked the capacity to help.

$44.5 million childcare cut drove expansion

Bourret called childcare "the determining factor in whether she can become financially independent" for a single mother. The children's center is named for the first child who moved into Grace Place in 2015.

A $44.5 million federal reduction to Tennessee's Child Care Development Fund in fiscal year 2025 made the problem worse, Bourret told Main Street Media in August. Mothers who lost childcare vouchers often lost their jobs and then their housing. The demand was steep. Grace Place's requests for assistance were up 40% since the funding cut, with more than 1,000 requests expected by the end of 2026, she said.

The decision to open a Grace Place-run childcare center came after Bourret concluded that a scholarship fund alone could not replace the lost state program.

Phase 2: 30 more homes planned

When complete, Grace Place Amplified will include 43 cottage-style homes. The second phase of 30 homes will support the nonprofit's "Rise & Thrive" program, which helps mothers pursue longer-term goals such as homeownership, college degrees or advanced career credentials.

Bourret said the distinction matters. A mother may achieve initial stability but still need time and support to build lasting economic security, she told Main Street Media.

No groundbreaking date or fundraising target for Phase 2 has been announced. But Bourret said each of the 30 planned homes "represents another family whose future could be fundamentally different because this community chose to invest in them."

One family that recently moved in had been on the waiting list for two years, Bourret said. Another mother told her she and her sons could have dinner, talk and play games together again.