Would you be willing to pay an additional $40 in property taxes to ensure affordable housing in Raleigh?
Raleigh City Council held a budget work session this week and spent a considerable amount of time discussing the need for affordable housing in the city and some potential sources of local funding to add to the amount of affordable housing being produced. Here is good recap from this morning’s N&O:
Check out this excellent piece written by Habitat for Humanity International CEO, Jonathan Reckford, for the World Economic Forum. Urbanization is occurring rapidly across the globe and adequate housing is at the center of the crisis. How will cities across the world respond to the housing needs in their cities with rapidly growing populations?
Never in a million years would I have thought that we would ever own our own home. As a young girl I thought owning homes were for rich, well to do people, but I have come to find out that anyone can own a home. Regardless of their current or past situation owning a home is a reality with perseverance and hard work. Owning a home has impacted my family in a positive way! We now have ample private and shared space, we are safe, and we have set an example for the rest of our family.
Everyone deserves a safe place to live. Housing inequality is a large problem all around the world. In Honduras, the large wealth gap was apparent in housing. It was great to see everyone help build a home for Sonia and her family in Honduras.
Our family selection committee plays a critical and rewarding role of accepting future Habitat Wake homeowners into our program. Kenisha Hinton, a program manager with Wake County Department of Human Services, has served as a committee member for more than a year. After hearing about a family in her church who was building with Habitat Wake and learning about the family selection committee from a friend, Kenisha joined.
Yesterday, the Wake County Board of Commissioners hosted a three hour work session devoted entirely to the issue of affordable housing. As Commissioner Jessica Holmes shared, this is unprecedented in the history of Wake County.
Habitat for Humanity’s mission, like God’s, is truly worldwide. The need for housing does not end at the border of Wake County! Habitat serves families in over 70 countries throughout the world and Habitat Wake is blessed to be significantly supporting the work of Habitat in Honduras, Malawi, and Cambodia. This fiscal year, we will provide funds to enable Habitat to serve 75 families in those countries.
Check out this report on the current state of Latino housing in North Carolina. There are some major disparities and major demographic trends that will have significant impact in the state over the next generation.
http://latinoccu.org/news/the-state-of-latino-housing-in-north-carolina-2015/
Over the next few months, several faith builds are starting, spurring lots of new home construction throughout Wake County!
• On Jan. 7, work began on the Building Independence Project, a collaboration among Habitat Wake, Lutheran Services Carolina and Serving Cup to construct three homes for nine adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. The Lutheran Coalition, together with North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, Thrivent Financial and many generous individuals, is funding this project.
This weekend, Raleigh is experiencing some of the coldest temperatures of the season. The cold is on everyone’s mind. I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t like cold weather. I’m a cold weather wimp. And this may sound cheesy, but every night when I get in bed, I am consciously aware of the house being warm and being grateful for that.