Housing subsidies

Check out this recent New York Times article around Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s proposals to drastically raise rents in federally subsidized housing.  Dr. Carson’s premise is that subsidized housing just promotes families staying in that housing for a lifetime and provides some sort of disincentive for work.  I think analysis will show that it is a much more complicated situation than solely that.

Boastfulness

Korishia and Shawn

Last night, we dedicated Korishia’s new home near downtown Fuquay-Varina.  Korishia and her daughter were very excited, the home was beautiful, and a large cadre of volunteers from both our corporate partners John Deere Company, Bob Barker Company and a large coalition of SW Wake-area churches came to share in the celebration.

In her words of thanks and remarks, Korishia shared with us the scripture from Jeremiah 9:23-24:

Malawi bound

Malawi team members 2016

Tomorrow and Friday, our team of 20 mission-minded folks is headed off to serve on a short-term mission with our colleagues at Habitat for Humanity Malawi, a small country of 10 million in southeast Africa.  This is our second trip to Malawi and this one is special in that we will participate in the joint work of Habitat for Humanity and Zoe, a Raleigh-based international orphan empowerment organization.

Planting Seeds of Service

Signed Green Hat

Agnes Penny, who recently retired from Cardinal Gibbons High School after 24 years of service, is responsible for cultivating thousands of teen-aged Habitat volunteers. As the school’s director of outreach, she connected students with opportunities to serve in the community. Every Cardinal Gibbons senior -- an average of 350 every year -- volunteers on Habitat Wake’s build site.

And after 24 years with the school, Penny exclaims, “That’s a lot of children!”  

Local housing need

The staff at the North Carolina Housing Coalition (www.nchousing.org) have put together data on the need for affordable housing in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.  The two counties we serve—Wake and Johnston show a need of 106,126 and 19,121 families cost burdened for housing in each county, respectively.  That’s 29% of all families in Wake and 31% in Johnston.

Check out this excellent resource here:

Dr. Martin Luther King 50 Years Later

I had just turned 10 in April 1968 and though not very aware of the world beyond my segregated suburban Washington, D.C. neighborhood, I remember hearing of the assassination of Dr. King and feeling, somehow, it was a major loss for humanity.

Years later, after much study of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. and on Dr. King in particular, I consider him to be one of all-time great Christian leaders—understanding as well as anyone—the cost of discipleship and how to live a life for others.