CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Boards of Directors of Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region and Habitat Gaston County announced the two affiliates will be combining their operations to serve more families with affordable housing solutions. The affiliate will operate under the Habitat Charlotte Region name and will serve low-to-moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners in a three-county area, encompassing Gaston, Iredell and Mecklenburg residents.
“The cost of housing in the greater Charlotte area continues to outpace many working families’ ability to purchase homes,” explained Habitat Charlotte Region CEO Laura Belcher. “By consolidating our organizations and combining efforts, we expect to serve more of those families together, more quickly than our two affiliates could serve if we continued to operate independently.”
Habitat Gaston County has provided affordable housing to residents for 36 years, and expects to complete a new, mixed-income neighborhood, Dixon Village, this year. The combined affiliate plans to add programs to serve local residents, including critical home repairs to help preserve existing affordable housing and addition of new financial education programing.
“More than a third of the Gaston County population is cost burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing. We have several families who have already been approved for new home ownership and many more who have requested critical repairs to homes they own,” said Habitat Gaston County Board Chairman Patrick Mumford. “Combining our talent and resources will enable us to provide services to those families in an accelerated time frame.”
Since 1983, the two affiliates have served more than 4,800 families, combined. The new organization will serve families from Charlotte to Gastonia and Pineville to Statesville, and will have:
- Assets of nearly $69 million
- Revenues of more than $52 million
- Nearly 1,100 mortgages
- More than 4,500 volunteers contributing nearly 80,000 hours of service annually
- More than 230 employees
The affiliates expect to finalize the consolidation on October 1. Habitat Charlotte Region will continue to be headquartered in Charlotte, with offices in Gastonia and Davidson, and it plans to operate seven ReStores in Charlotte, Cornelius, Gastonia, Mooresville, Pineville, and Statesville.
