News & Updates

Our Force of Habitat team is made up of skilled volunteers with a lifetime of construction experience. These dedicated individuals lead our volunteer teams and support our builds from start to finish. They are truly the driving force behind every Habitat build. Meet some of our Force of Habitat Volunteers: 

Habitat Homeowner Marwa arrived in the United States at age 13 with her family, stepping into a completely new world. As a refugee with Eritrean and Sudanese roots, her early years in the U.S. were shaped by transition, resilience and her family’s determination to build a stable foundation.

If you attended our February 21st dedication at Old Poole Place, you heard me say that this is a holy time. This spring, I have been reminded that our various religious ancestors understood that we need regular practices of prayer, fasting, charity and loving each other; to be the people, the community, and the world, God intends us to be.

Last week, Wolf Plaza transformed into a special kind of Habitat build site. The Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter at NC State University hosted Shack-A-Thon 2026, bringing dozens of student organizations together to fundraise for Habitat Wake.

The affordable housing crisis in our community is urgent. Habitat Wake is committed to innovating to meet the scale of need, including through systemic policy change across the housing continuum. Every year, Habitat Wake sets policy priorities that reflect the most important housing issues we need to tackle as a community.

“The thing about a craft, a handmade art form, is that when you receive the piece, it has love and prayers woven into its very being. And you can’t buy that at Target.”

At Habitat Wake, we hold a longstanding tradition of gifting quilts or afghans to homebuyers when they close on their homes. These pieces are made by community partners, often members of our faith network, and each one carries a patchwork of care, intention and prayer.

For Jessica, life has always been a balancing act between her work as a preschool account specialist and her role as a mom to three children: a 15-year-old son and two young daughters, ages 2 and 4. Add the constant stress of rental stability, and questions about school zoning, budgeting, and day-to-day life became hard to predict from year to year.

“Basically, outside of working and doing mom stuff, that’s really all I do. And because of how home prices have changed in Raleigh across my life it’s been a struggle for me trying to be a homeowner on my own,” Jessica says.

The following is a speech from Habitat Wake founder Rick Beech, delivered to the Apex Town Council on February 10, 2026

I have lived in Apex since 1998. I love living at the “Peak of Good Living”. I was fortunate to move here when families with modest incomes, including many public servants, could afford to live here. I passionately speak tonight with the hope that Apex could again be a place where public servants can live and serve. I plead for the Town’s help so that the dream of serving and living in Apex does not stop with my generation.

Last week, Habitat Homeowner Rae joined nearly 500 Habitat for Humanity leaders, supporters and homeowners in Washington, D.C. to participate in the annual Habitat on the Hill Conference. This gathering provides a platform for Habitat affiliates across the nation to meet with lawmakers and urge them to act on affordable housing solutions. For Rae, it was also an opportunity to share her story directly with her representatives.