Sweat equity is the "sweat" homebuyers contribute in exchange for a safe, affordable home. Homebuyers must complete 200 hours of sweat equity prior to closing on their homes.

Our hearts go out to the Houston residents starting their recovery from Hurricane Harvey. We've been in touch with Houston Habitat about helping them, and learned that they have more than 100 homeowners with acute needs.

The wealth gap in the United States when analyzed by race is staggering.  The Economic Policy Institute concludes in their publication, The State of Working America, that two-thirds of a typical household’s wealth comes from housing equity.  Homeownership not only provides a family with a safe, stable, and secure place to live, but it is also the chief driver of wealth-building in our country.  Access to wealth and capital is the primary way to break the cycle of poverty.  Check out this graphic from the Economic Policy Institute.

I used to live close to Charlottesville and had a hand in starting the Habitat affiliate there in the early ’90’s, so the events over the past weekend feel very personal on many levels. Habitat International President and CEO Jonathan Reckford’s words are are a good message in response, as are Habitat Charlottesville’s CEO Dan Rosensweig’s words, as both tie the hatred and violence on display in Charlottesville back to similar activities surrounding Habitat founding organization, Koinonia Farm back in the 1950’s and ’60’s.

Habitat for Humanity recently surveyed 1,000 households in the U.S. and Canada for their opinions on homeownership.  Check out this infographic summarizing the results of the survey: 

En’Janet Joseph - Director of Neighborhood Engagement

Hometown: Fort Washington, Maryland

Current town: Raleigh

 
When did you start working at Habitat Wake?: October 2012

Wages for low income workers have been stagnant for the last many years while housing costs continue to rise rapidly.

At our Board of Directors annual meeting earlier this month, our visionary Board approved an aggressive plan for us to serve 245 families in our Fiscal Year 2018 which begins July 1.  We are closing out a very successful FY17 June 30 and will serve 205 families, the first time in our history to reach the 200 family served level for a single year! For FY18, we’ll serve 70 families with homeownership opportunities and another 50 through our owner occupied Home Preservation repair program.

Habitat Wake is moving forward with its rezoning request for Trimble Avenue in Cary! We’ve made some changes to our project proposal that we hope will be supported by both the Cary Town Council and the surrounding community.

Johnny Glover, Faith Relations Coordinator

Hometown: I was born in the Triangle and have lived in Raleigh for 67 years, mostly in the North Raleigh area. I attended Enloe High School the first year it was opened.