When I joined Habitat for Humanity of Wake County as CEO in October of 2022, one thing was clear: Habitat Wake has a long history and an amazing track record thanks to the ongoing community support we have received since 1985.
This year saw new milestones and wins: we built our 900th home and launched our newest neighborhood. We also completed our 500th home preservation project. We worked with local elected officials on anti-displacement strategies and increasing access to transit for people who rely on public transportation to get to work and school every day.
Through it all, community partners have been our bedrock. And we will need your help as we usher in a new era of creativity and innovation to respond to this affordable housing crisis.
As we develop a new strategic plan in 2024, our goal is to leverage our brand and the powerful support we have from our donors to find more sustainable and equitable housing solutions for our community.
I can’t wait to see what we do together in the years to come!
Patricia Burch, Habitat Wake CEO
Our 2023 Headlines
Old Poole Place Launches!
In 2023, we began building our newest community in southeast Raleigh. This property hosts 105 lots to be filled with 60 single-family homes and 45 townhomes (and now an additional nine townhomes, thanks to a unique sale by the City of Raleigh).
As of this winter, more than 30 of those homes are complete or underway, and six homes have officially been dedicated! Families began moving into their homes in September, with more moving in just in time for the holidays.
Neighborhoods like this are one solution to combat rising costs, and they are only possible with support from your, our community. Thank you for helping us make Old Poole Place a reality so that more families can come home to an affordable place to live.
Habitat for Humanity of Wake County making progress in building 105 new homes off Old Poole Road
Habitat for Humanity constructs affordable housing southeast of downtown Raleigh to help families
76
families served through new home construction and home preservation
Habitat Wake Takes Home Prize in 2023 Parade of Homes
We were proud to once again showcase our homes in the 2023 Parade of Homes for the fourth year in a row.
Most people know that Habitat builds homes with help from donors and volunteers from the community. But the HBA's Parade of Homes gives us a chance to highlight other areas of our mission, like our new cabinet services and our Advocacy Ambassador volunteer group. And of course, it demonstrates quality of our construction.
This year we were honored to take home the silver award in our price bracket for our entry, the Carlisle. The win underscored that Habitat Wake homes are beautiful, well-built and sustainable. Like all our homes, the Carlisle was built with volunteer support and will be sold to a local family with an affordable mortgage.
We are proud of our win and the collective effort that goes into building our homes each day!
Our Advocacy Efforts Paid Off
Our Advocacy Ambassadors were out in full force this year! In our March Lobby Day, they organized to advocate for better funding for affordable housing in the Wake County and City of Raleigh budgets. Hundreds of community members wrote comments, spoke at the budget hearings, and attended the hearings decked out in their Habitat t-shirts.
Some major budget wins this year include:
- A $1.3 million investment in a new Major Repair program, which would assist income-eligible households with major system repairs for up to $90,000
- An increase of $1.4 million to the Crisis Intervention Program, which provides emergency heating and cooling assistance to income-eligible households
- In Wake Forest, the Board of Commissioners included $50,000 to continue to assist with renovations and rehabilitation of homes in their northeast community.
- Wake Forest also dedicated half a cent of the tax rate (.05 cents) for affordable housing, $200,000 of which will be used to establish an affordable housing fund.
- The Cary budget includes a $9 million for housing initiatives, $5 million of which is from one-time ARPA funding.
These wins represent a huge effort on the part of many community partners and advocates, not just Habitat Wake. But our work bringing people together earned some recognition in the form of an award for Best Grassroots Mobilization from the NC Housing Coalition!
We did even more with the help of the ReStores
Last year, the Habitat ReStores set out to raise $170,000 in round-up donations to fund the construction of a Habitat home. Thanks to the generous donations from ReStores shoppers, they met that goal!
Your extra pennies have helped turn local families into homebuyers, and that is no small change! These dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies have been added up to cover the cost of land, development and construction materials needed to build a Habitat home.
This is in addition to the significant revenue that the ReStores raise each year in the form of profits from selling gently-used furniture and building supplies to the public.
To celebrate this amazing accomplishment, staff from all 10 of the ReStores spent a day onsite at our newest community, Old Poole Place, to build the house funded by your round-ups!
We are so appreciative of your support as we work together to build homes, communities and hope.
Special Thanks
Thank you Metlife!
For the past 10 years, MetLife and the MetLife Foundation have partnered with Habitat Wake to empower families through homeownership. Over the years, 1,865 MetLife employees have volunteered more than 19,000 hours and contributed more than $460,000.
In 2023, MetLife committed $50,000 to support Habitat Wake’s home building efforts. Colleagues spent 23 days volunteering at Old Poole Place and Rose Lane in Raleigh and building walls at Habitat’s construction warehouse.
Thank you, MetLife, for your ongoing support!
Thank you Eberharts!
The Eberhart family spent generations farming the land off of Rose Lane in Raleigh. When they decided it was time to move on, Mary Catharine Eberhart and her husband Pete wanted it to go “somewhere we valued.”
Once a friend of Pete’s recommended donating the land to Habitat Wake, the Eberharts knew it was a perfect fit. Describing the feeling of giving the land to Habitat, Mary Catharine said: “It’s a glimmer that happens,” using a phrase often shared by her daughter Catharine.
Habitat Wake and the team of dedicated volunteers took the land from harvest-ready to build-ready, and soon a new house was standing on the property. Homebuyer Rahima was going through the homeownership program at the time and fell in love with the Rose Lane property. In September 2023, Habitat staff, volunteers, and the Eberhart family gathered at the new home on Rose Lane for Rahima’s new home dedication.
Habitat Wake is grateful for the generosity of Mary Catharine and her family- husband Pete; daughter Catharine Eberhart and husband Bob Maiers; daughter Elizabeth Eberhart Szuba and husband Tom; and grandchildren.
Thank you to our faith partners!
The faith community continues to grapple with the root causes of our affordable housing crisis while providing the volunteers and an all-time high amount of funding ($629,212) to build and preserve as many affordable homes as possible. Last year, 380 people attended Race and Housing Dialogues and 130 people participated in Habitat Wake's inaugural Housing Forums.
The first congregational based Advocacy Ambassador training was held, and we now have 87 trained Advocacy Ambassadors from the faith community. These ambassadors helped mobilized 733 people to advocate for affordable housing in 2023, generating some of Habitat Wake's biggest advocacy wins to date.
Get your congregation involved
2023 Faith Coalitions
Apostles Fall Build • Apostles Spring Build • Baptist Build • Cary Coalition • Catholic Coalition • Downtown Coalition • East Wake Coalition • Episcopal Coalition • Fiesta Build • Interfaith Build • Johnston County Coalition • Lutheran Coalition • Methodist Coalition • Northern Wake Coalition • Orthodox Build • Presbyterian Coalition • South Wake Coalition • Southwest Wake Coalition
122
congregational partners
2,026
faith construction volunteers
733
advocates mobilized through faith groups
Thank you to our lead Faith partners!
Thank you to our lead Faith partners!
Reaching New Heights: Volunteers
Every year our volunteers go above and beyond to make our work possible. Whether they are in our construction warehouse prepping materials for wall builds, building homes on site, sorting donations in the ReStore, or making calls to our legislators, Habitat volunteers make our world go round. Without them, we would not be able to serve as many families. Thank you, volunteers!
123,722
volunteer hours
Remembering
This year, Habitat Wake lost some formative figures both locally and nationally.
Read below about the incredible impact of Dewey Alley and Rosalynn Carter on our work.
2023 Financials
Corporate Partners in 2023
Whole Home Builder
Whole Home Builder
Future Framer
Future Framer
Dream Developers
Dream Developers
Groundbreakers
Groundbreakers
Roof Raiser
Roof Raiser
Door Openers
Door Openers
