Charlotte-area Habitat for Humanity groups to merge, say savings to create more housing

Two local Habitat for Humanity affiliates will merge next month in a move officials say will create savings to build and repair more affordable housing.

Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte and Our Towns Habitat for Humanity, which serves north Mecklenburg and Iredell counties, will consolidate to become the third-largest Habitat chapter in the country by number of new homes built. Habitat Charlotte President and CEO Laura Belcher will lead the combined organization, which will debut a new name in time for the Feb. 28 merger.

“We have had a great collaborative relationship for years,” Belcher said of the two Habitat groups. “We felt the time was right to solidify that and come together to serve more families.”

Officials estimate they will save about $6 million over 10 years by reducing duplicate contracts for services like insurance and information technology and allow for better rates on construction-related expenses. The merger will also result in “a handful” of staff reductions, mostly in management, Belcher said.

Belcher said those savings will allow the new chapter to work with more than 250 families per year through new home builds and repairs, up from about 220 annually across the two separate organizations.

“We know that there is a housing crisis in the community, and we’re doing this to address it more effectively,” she said.

Chris Ahearn, CEO of Our Towns Habitat, will step down from the organization. Ahearn said the smaller chapter struggled with increased construction and land costs. She’s hopeful the merger will reduce the backlog of families waiting for new homes. Twenty-eight families are in the pipeline for new homes through Our Towns, she said, some waiting as long as two years.

“We want to serve folks faster, to be able to build faster and really work with those families to gain that financial stability that they have been working toward,” Ahearn said.

The new chapter will be headquartered in Charlotte and have an office in Cornelius. The seven Habitat ReStore retail locations — three currently operated by Our Towns Habitat and four by Habitat Charlotte — will remain open.

This work was made possible in part by grant funding from Report for America/GroundTruth Project and the Foundation For The Carolinas.

This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 12:01 PM.