WE'RE
WELSUM ENTERPRISES
REAL ESTATE
Real Estate Solutions for Transitional & Supportive Housing
WE’RE (Welsum Enterprises) is a real estate platform focused on transitional and supportive housing.
We acquire and reposition overlooked properties, partner with experienced operators, and steward assets through stabilization - proving that good development and good outcomes are not in conflict.
The Gap
Our housing system is built around two extremes: emergency shelter and permanent housing.
For many people, the leap between the two is simply too large.What’s missing is a dignified middle ground — transitional, supportive housing that restores routine, stability, and readiness without institutional scale or cost.This gap is not only social. It is spatial and economic.Across our cities sit underutilized properties - vacant retail, excess parking, surplus civic and faith-owned land - carrying cost but providing no benefit. At the same time, communities struggle to place people who are not ready for permanence, yet cannot remain in crisis.
The Opportunity
Across cities and suburbs sit properties that no longer serve their original purpose: vacant big-box retail, dead strip centers, excess parking, and underutilized civic or church-owned land.These sites often trade below replacement cost, carry ongoing liability, and resist conventional redevelopment. Yet they are frequently well-located, infrastructure-ready, and politically visible.At the same time, communities lack appropriate places for people in transition — housing that is neither emergency shelter nor permanent residence.WE’RE views this as a land-use misalignment: valuable ground left dormant while people cycle through instability.Across Georgia and the Southeast:- Vacant big-box retail
- Dead strip centers
- Excess parking
- Underutilized church & civic landThese sites are often:- Below replacement cost
- Politically difficult to repurpose for traditional uses
- Expensive liabilities for municipalitiesWE’RE views this as a land-use misalignment - not a social inevitability. When land is repositioned thoughtfully, it can stabilize people and create long-term value at the same time.
The Pilot
The initial focus is a single, modest pilot — designed to be repeatable rather than exceptional.By starting small, the model can be tested, refined, and evaluated without excess risk or complexity, while demonstrating how underutilized land can be repositioned into stabilizing housing.A first pilot would likely consist of a small cluster of private dwellings arranged around shared outdoor space, located on underutilized commercial, civic, or faith-owned land. The emphasis is on speed, clarity, and measurable outcomes - not scale for its own sake.- 12–24 units
- Underutilized commercial, civic, or church-adjacent land
- Courtyard-oriented layout
- Partnership with an experienced operating provider
- Fast, straightforward deploymentThe goal of the pilot is not to solve homelessness in a single move, but to establish a clear, replicable framework — one that can be adapted to different sites and partners over time.Prove it once.
Repeat with discipline.
The Housing
The housing itself is intentionally modest, private, and well-designed. Units are small, efficient, and durable—arranged to create shared outdoor spaces that promote visibility, safety, and everyday interaction.The goal is to achieve critical mass without institutional crowding. By clustering units into smaller "pocket neighborhoods" or courtyard groups, we can scale to 80–100+ homes while retaining the intimacy and dignity of a small community. The design allows for density, but the experience remains human-scaled.By prioritizing light, proportion, and shared gardens over institutional corridors, the environment communicates worth without excess. Residents are given space to regain routine and autonomy, while remaining connected to a supportive community.Small Private Units: Studio, modular, or trailer-based dwellings that offer autonomy.Courtyard-Oriented Site Plans: Units face inward toward shared green space, not outward toward asphalt.Scalable Density (80–100+ units): Large-scale impact broken down into manageable, intimate clusters.Shared Gardens & Gathering Spaces: Active "living rooms" for the community that encourage safe socialization.Designed to feel like a real place, not just a program.
The Model
WE’RE operates as a real estate owner and developer, not a service provider.The model separates ownership, operations, and care — allowing each party to do what it does best, while aligning incentives around long-term stability.WE’RE (Owner / Developer)- Acquires or controls land and buildings
- Entitles and improves property for transitional use
- Designs dignified environments at range of scales
- Risk Mitigation: The entire facility is Master Leased to the qualified operator or municipal partner, guaranteeing rental income regardless of individual unit occupancy.Operating Partners- Provide resident services and programming
- Manage day-to-day site operations
- Receive public, philanthropic, or contractual funding
- Operate independently within agreed standardsCapital & Public Partners- Support acquisition, entitlement, or early improvements
- De-risk deployment through grants or guarantees
- Enable long-term, stable tenancyBy keeping operations and ownership distinct, the real estate remains durable even as programs evolve. This structure reduces risk, improves accountability, and supports repeatable deployment across multiple sites.
The Economics
WE’RE approaches transitional housing as a value-add real estate strategy, not a charitable expense.By acquiring underutilized property, repositioning it through thoughtful entitlement and design, and securing stable long-term tenancy, value is created for communities and capital partners at the same time.Revenue stability is supported by publicly backed or mission-aligned operators, while downside risk is reduced through clear role separation and modest, repeatable project scale.This allows assets to stabilize over time and be held or transferred to long-term owners aligned with the mission.Value-add acquisition
- Below-replacement-cost acquisition
- Entitlement and political de-risking
- Long-term, stable tenancy
- Modest operating volatility
- Clear exit pathways
- Entitlement and political de-risking
- Long-term, stable tenancy
- Exit to mission-aligned or ESG buyers in 3–6 yearsAssets are typically held through stabilization, then exited to mission-aligned buyers, impact funds, or long-term holders within a 3–6 year horizon. Equity is recycled into subsequent projects to enable repetition and scale.Retained earnings are reinvested to scale impact, while ensuring competitive debt service coverage and sustainable land lease payments for partners. We believe good development and good outcomes are not in conflict.
The Platform
Welsum Enterprises is a purpose-built real estate development platform. We bridge the gap between underutilized commercial assets and the urgent demand for transitional housing.We operate as a lean, discipline-led developer, partnering with best-in-class non-profit operators and municipal stakeholders. Our core competencies include:- Strategic Site Acquisition & Adaptive Reuse- Trauma-Informed Architectural Design- Public-Private Partnership Structuring
The Founder's Note
Welsum Enterprises was formed from a simple observation: while cities invest heavily in emergency shelter and permanent housing, the space in between is often overlooked. That gap — where stability is fragile and dignity matters most — is where real estate can have its greatest impact. For individuals transitioning out of homelessness, this period is often marked by uncertainty, vulnerability, and a deep sensitivity to how space reflects their worth and future.As an architect, I have seen how buildings shape not only behavior and outcomes, but self-perception. Too often, transitional housing prioritizes efficiency over humanity, unintentionally reinforcing feelings of disposability or impermanence. Welsum exists to challenge that pattern. We believe the built environment is not neutral, but formative. By repurposing underutilized properties with architectural intention and economic discipline, we create housing that is both feasible and humane — spaces that offer psychological safety and signal dignity, belonging, and the possibility of forward movement.— Daniel Osborne
Founder, Welsum Enterprises
Bio
Daniel Osborne is an architect, designer, and real estate strategist with over two decades of experience in residential, hospitality, and mixed-use development. He is the founder of Welsum Enterprises, a design-led development platform focused on dignified transitional housing through adaptive real estate reuse.Through a career spanning custom homes, community-oriented projects, and early-stage visioning for underutilized sites, Daniel became acutely aware of a structural gap in the built environment: the lack of humane, well-designed transitional housing that bridges crisis and long-term stability. Welsum Enterprises emerged from that conviction, combining development pragmatism with a human-centered design philosophy that views architecture and land use as formative forces capable of supporting dignity, stability, and renewal.
Join the Founding Team
Welsum Enterprises is currently selecting key strategic partners to round out our founding executive team. We are specifically seeking expertise in Capital Strategy and Operations.To Discuss: Please direct expressions of interest to [email protected]. Kindly use the subject line: 'Executive Partnership' to ensure your inquiry is routed to the founder immediately.
In Conversation
For Capital & Land Owners: We are vetting partners for our 2026 Pilot Portfolio. If you control underutilized commercial assets or represent mission-aligned capital, let’s discuss the yield and impact potential.For Municipalities & Grantors: We provide a turnkey solution for the "Missing Middle." If you are seeking to deploy rapid, high-accountability transitional housing before the 2026 World Cup, request our Capability Statement.For Operators & Community: We are always seeking experienced service providers, ministry partners, and community advocates to join the mission.