As you may have heard, it’s budget season! From now through June, our local governments will be considering funding priorities and gathering input from the community to inform the budget for next fiscal year. Public budgets are the guiding document for how taxpayer dollars are spent. They reflect a community’s values and investment priorities.

Local budgets must first provide critical services to residents, such as water and sewer infrastructure, trash collection, and public safety. Additional revenues can be allocated to other types of programs like arts and cultural resources.

Shack-a-Thon is a 20-year collaboration between the N.C. State Habitat for Humanity Chapter and Habitat Wake. 

This past Sunday, I was out on the Brickyard at NC State’s campus and got to see students building shacks from the ground up for this year’s Shack-a-Thon to benefit Habitat Wake as well as raise awareness for affordable housing. I am here to tell you these students are strong, smart, innovative and ready to raise money! 

Every year, Habitats across the world take part in Women Build, an initiative that started 30 years ago in Charlotte, NC, when a group of women came together to build a house alongside a woman in the Habitat homebuyer program. This concept, championed by Habitat for Humanity International, has propelled the global movement for affordable housing to new heights.

This month, over 600 staff, volunteers, homeowners, and advocates from across the country joined Habitat’s annual legislative conference, Habitat on the Hill. The conference gave us a chance to learn from our peer affiliates, underscore the need for affordable housing amid COVID-19, and, most importantly, advocate for policies and funding that support housing affordability to members of Congress.

Here are a few bits of knowledge we gained throughout the week:
 

At Habitat Wake, we want to commemorate all those whose strides have broken barriers over centuries and geographic locations. We also cheer on those who are carrying the torch today, and we aim to be good partners in that labor—especially when it comes to housing. 

The future of Black history relies on housing affordability

At Habitat Wake, we have an ambitious mission to create a world in which everybody has an affordable place to live. This goal becomes increasingly difficult as the cost of housing skyrockets in Wake and Johnston counties and beyond.

The need for housing in our community is great; 1 in every 4 households lack affordable housing and we have a net loss of 900 affordable units every year.

Last Thursday, over 500 homeowners and advocates joined a public assembly in Southeast Raleigh to show support for a local property tax relief program. This event, hosted by ONE Wake, called on Raleigh City Council and Wake County Commissioners to prioritize property tax relief in next fiscal year’s budget.

The sound of hammers on nails rang out on Trimble Avenue in Cary last Friday as elected officials came together to build an affordable home with Habitat Wake. Sixteen policymakers from local, state and federal office participated in the 4th annual Elected Officials Build, demonstrating their commitment to affordable housing through policy change and through their own “sweat equity.”