• 2024 Annual Report Header Image

Message from Andy

It’s easy to let the months after Hurricane Helene overshadow the nine months before. The storm tested our resilience revealing the generosity and strength of our community. The past year confirms that Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity is about more than building houses—it’s about building hope and community.

Before the storm, we celebrated incredible milestones like the 5th anniversary of the Weaverville ReStore. We had the highest volunteer participation since the pandemic. Our investment in home repairs to date in Asheville’s legacy neighborhoods reached over $1.5 million. We made our largest gifts ever to support Habitat from Humanity’s global work. We watched our mission come to life in the hands and hearts of volunteers, donors, and homeowners.

Then, on September 27, everything changed. Helene’s floodwaters could not erode our mission. Thanks to your generosity, we bounced back from the significant damage to our Meadow Rd. facilities and sprang into action building and repairing homes. While the road to recovery is long, we are committed to building strength and stability even in the face of disaster. Working together, I am confident that Habitat will support our region for as long as it takes to rebuild.

Every hour volunteered, every dollar donated, every act of kindness strengthens our shared commitment to a community where everyone has a safe and stable place to call home. Thank you for being part of this journey.

In Partnership,

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Andy Barnett, CEO 

Housing Solutions

In 2024, 70 local families were served through new home, home repair, and home revitalization programs. Plus, we implemented a new Disaster Home Repair program.

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The simple phrase “I’m a homeowner!” from someone who never thought it possible, is enough to bring tears to your eyes. When Teresa (pictured) shared those words at a dedication event, her smile emanated joy, and her voice exuded pride– and there weren’t many dry eyes in the room. Habitat makes homeownership possible for those earning 30-80% AMI (area median income) who don’t qualify for traditional financing.

In 2024, our Glenn Bridge neighborhood in Arden became home to 11 more families. With support from volunteers, donors, sponsors, and with the “sweat equity” of homebuyers, we built a combination of single-family detached homes, two-story townhomes, and one-level Aging in Place townhomes specifically for aging adults. All Habitat homes are Green Built NC certified.

Our Home Repair team was busy all year completing accessibility and safety related repairs for low-income homeowners all across Buncombe and Madison County. The majority of home repair clients are older, and most have lived in their homes for many decades. Our program helps folks remain in their homes, reduces displacement in the face of gentrification, and retains affordable housing stock. In October, our home repair work intensified as we officially joined forces with other non-profit repair agencies to support Hurricane Helene relief and recovery efforts.

Sometimes people need to move for any number of reasons. When that happens, Habitat supports families through their life changes. Part of that includes exercising our right to repurchase the home (per the mortgage and deed of trust documents), when it makes sense to do so.

When we repurchase a home from it’s original owner, we renovate the home to like-new standards and then sell the home to another homebuyer who qualifies for our program. Our Home Revitalization program provides more families the opportunity to improve their housing, retains affordable housing stock, and helps combat gentrification. In 2024, four homeowners purchased revitalized homes.

Hurricane Helene exacerbated our housing crisis. In Buncombe County alone, more than 360 homes were destroyed and another 10,000+ were damaged. Thanks to a new partnership, ARCHR (Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair) is offering no-cost repairs to qualified low-income families whose homes sustained storm damage.

Already in development, ARCHR was fast-tracked due to the storm. Members currently include Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity (also acting as fiduciary agent), Poder Emma, Mountain Housing Opportunities, Community Action Opportunities, and the Asheville Buncombe Community Land Trust.

By increasing communication and collaboration among the partner organizations, ARCHR reduces the burden on low-income households seeking needed home repair and modification services. ARCHR triages home repair applicants to prioritize uninsured, underinsured, and those not receiving FEMA assistance. Apply here.

Meet Arthur, a home repair client
Meet Jan, a home repair core volunteer
Meet Lilian, a disaster repair client

Bringing People Together

 
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Volunteer Spotlight: Friends and Former Co-Workers

Volunteers Sherry and Wendy stand next to each other at the Asheville ReStore's upper registers, smiling at the camera.

Wendy (L) and Sherry (R) are best friends who worked together as educators and continue to work together as volunteers in retirement. Sherry introduced Wendy to the ReStore, and together they turn customers into new volunteers and volunteers into new friends. Learn more about their experiences at Asheville Habitat and what brings them back to the Asheville ReStore every Thursday in this video.

Donor Spotlight: One person can make a difference

Can you think of something that happened in your childhood that impacted your life years later? For Rhoda Todd, a retired university Dean of Students living in Asheville and monthly donor to Asheville Habitat, it was going with her dad to work. Her father moonlighted at a Savings and Loan, and she remembers holding the end of the measuring tape as she tagged along on his construction site visits. Then when she was in the 8th grade, her father built their family home and she got a front row seat to the whole process. 

Imprinted with these memories, Rhoda started donating to Habitat for Humanity in the 1980s thanks to Habitat’s most famous supporter, Jimmy Carter. Volunteering wasn’t a good fit for her, so she began giving monthly so she could make an impact and help others achieve a decent, affordable place to live. 

Read more…

Event Spotlight: Blueprint Breakfast for Dinner

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Asheville Habitat and some of Asheville’s culinary best hosted a fun and delicious evening at (former) pleb urban winery, with the support of Shay & Company. Putting a unique spin on an evening event, 7 local chefs served up delicious breakfast-inspired dishes– for dinner. The menu reflected different perspectives of what ‘home’ means to each of the featured chefs including: 
Michelle Bailey – Private Chef
Brian Crow – Chestnut & The Corner Kitchen
Steven Goff – Tastee Diner
Mike McCarty – Lobster Trap
Dune Pierre Michel – French Broad Pantry
Peter Pollay – Posana
Terri Terrell – Private Chef 

High Ground Stringband provided live music and companies donated incredible items to the auction, including Made In Cookware, Asheville Crafted Edge, BB Barnes, and Smithey’s Ironware, to name a few. This successful event in the River Arts District will be one we’ll remember for a long time to come, for more reasons that one.   

Advocacy Spotlight: SOID and more

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Advocacy is an increasingly important part of Habitat’s work. In 2024, our Advocacy Team experienced some big wins. Our SOID (Source of Income Discrimination) work was recognized at the annual national Habitat on the Hill conference in DC. Our advocacy efforts helped pass a $20M City of Asheville bond referendum that supports $5M respectively for affordable housing, transportation, public safety, and parks & recreation. 

Additionally, we asked folks to contact their elected officials about issues including:

Telling the NC Dept of Insurance to DENY the unfair home insurance rate hikes;

Urging Congress to invest in affordable homeownership;

Encouraging attendance at the City’s Affordable Housing Community Feedback Sessions.

Sign up for Advocacy Alerts and use your voice to advocate for smart housing policies. Thank you!

Partner Spotlight: MANNA FoodBank

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Asheville Habitat and MANNA FoodBank have been beacons of hope for thousands and thousands of families for more than forty years. Both organizations were hit hard by Hurricane Helene in late September with MANNA’s warehouse and office destroyed completely, and Habitat’s Asheville ReStore and Administrative Office severely damaged. Nonetheless, these two non-profits that the community relies on acted quickly to support the community in its greatest time of need.

In mid-October, the two agencies signed an agreement that had a number of ReStore staff working at MANNA’s new warehouse through mid-January 2025, when the Asheville ReStore reopened. Read more…

1,341

volunteers

43,502

hours of volunteer service

5,402

service hours by AmeriCorps members

3,491

Sweat Equity hours by homebuyers & repair clients

Thank you volunteers!

At the heart of our mission statement is the phrase, “brings people together,” and our volunteer program is an embodiment of that intention. Habitat is where retirees find camaraderie and purpose among ReStore customers and merchandise; where students are introduced to the construction trade and affordable housing issues; where women are empowered to provide solutions to the affordable housing crisis through our Women Build program; and where future homebuyers are prepared to become homeowners. 1,341 volunteers collectively contributed 43,502 hours of service to Asheville Habitat in 2024. We are grateful to each person who showed up to help, whether it was once or once a week. Thank you! 

Click the photos below to see a list of 2024 Core Volunteers by area.

Top 5 Volunteers 

Hover over the icons below to see names & hours.

901 hours

Tim Kruse
Weaverville ReStore

674.5 hours

John Harvin
AVL & WVL ReStores

591.5 hours

Janis Rose
Asheville ReStore

574 hours

CJ Obara
Construction Services

560 hours

Jerry Ray
Construction Services

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Thank you donors & sponsors!

Every dollar makes a difference! We appreciate all the donors and sponsors who shared their financial resources to help us meet existing and new goals. Some of you are new to Habitat, others are long-time supporters, and many increased your giving to meet the increased need in our community post-Helene. We are grateful to each of you whether you contributed $10, $10,000, or more. It takes all of us!

Click the buttons below to view our generous 2024 donors and sponsors.

Our Donors Our Sponsors

New this year, we’d also like to recognize those who made donations in 2024 to ARCHR (Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair). Supporters are listed here.

  • Hometrust Bank On Jobsite
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  • U Of Alabama 2024
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  • Christ School On Jobsite
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donors gave generously

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gave for the first time

“This organization is HOME for me, not only because the work here is important to me and what is in my heart. But also because it is responsible for the actual home that I return to every day. I was able to give my children a safe and beautiful home to grow up in, and it’s now the place they come back to. It’s HOME.”  

“I feel good knowing that I am being useful and doing something that matters. We get some Aging in Place funds for people who need help staying in their homes because of  accessibility or mobility issues. We do things like build ramps for people that maybe have had to transition into using a walker or a wheelchair. We put it better windows, so peoples’ heating bills aren’t so bad. It’s a pretty rewarding job.”

“I want to say that I have never been so grateful to be in a community! We have been in contact with each other every day, making sure everyone is ok and if we have what is needed. We have set up food tables and come together for meals, water, and coffee and to support each other. This is the first evening we haven’t been having a fire and been together. We have been blessed with power restored quickly and have access to tv, etc., and a lot of us chose to be outside with each other. This has truly made our community even stronger and we know we have a support system. I am so grateful for this community and the people that live here!”

 

“This is literally the best organization I have ever known. It’s run like a business, but there is heart all the way from the CEO to every volunteer and staff member.”

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ReStore Highlights

 

5 years and counting

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In August 2024, the Weaverville ReStore celebrated it’s 5th anniversary and half a decade of diverting saleable goods from the landfill and affordably recirculating them throughout the community to support Asheville Habitat’s building and repair programs. Though Weaverville’s population is only 4% of Asheville’s, the Weaverville ReStore does roughly 33% of the total business of its Asheville counterpart.  Looking forward to the next half decade to come, Weaverville ReStore Manager Kim Klaas reflected on what makes the Weaverville store unique. Read more…

Hurricane helpers

Wake Co Team

It took a herculean effort to get the Asheville ReStore reopened in less than 4 months. We could not have done it without support from Habitat affiliates around the country who sent donations of merchandise, did Register Round Ups in their ReStores for us, loaned us a truck, and even sent staff to help us reopen the store. We are grateful to be part of the Habitat for Humanity family, and we are humbled by the response we received from our sister affiliates.

Read more…

The little store that could

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When Helene caused the Asheville ReStore to shutter its doors for nearly 4 months, the Weaverville location became the go-to Asheville Habitat ReStore.

Busier than they’d ever been, the small store was busting at the seams with merchandise and shoppers. Many long-time Asheville ReStore shoppers “discovered” the Weaverville ReStore. It was as a beacon of hope for folks needing affordable home goods and Asheville ReStore volunteers seeking to stay connected. Some “traditional” Asheville ReStore core volunteers volunteered in Weaverville to help the team keep up, and a few Asheville ReStore staff members were reassigned to Weaverville. Collectively, 28 Asheville ReStore volunteers served 428 hours at the Weaverville ReStore through the end of December. The silver-lining? Increased interaction between AVL and WVL volunteers and staff, and many people learned about the Weaverville store for the first time. “The little store that could” can and did!

131,516

customers

2,451

tons diverted from landfills

4,952

donation pick-ups

1,742

lbs. of emission savings through Smash My Trash

570,779

items sold

12,874

lbs. of fabric recycled through GreenZone

Thank you ReStore Business Partners

 
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Americas Homeplace
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J & N Construction
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Beyond our borders

In 2024, we continued our monthly tithe in support of Habitat in Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Kenya, as well as Habitat for Humanity’s Orphans & Vulnerable Groups (OVG) Fund. Additionally, tithing on a large gift our affiliate received from Mackenzie Scott a few years ago, we made special donations to Habitat Kenya, Habitat Uganda, and Habitat for Humanity’s Home Equals campaign.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Helene prevented Habitat Guatemala staff from coming to visit us in October as planned. They were to share updates about their work, and attend our Volunteer Appreciation Party. We also had to cancel our Global Village Trip to Guatemala planned for early November. Though we were unable to work alongside and visit with our friends from Guatemala, they made a special “reverse tithe” to help support our disaster recovery efforts. Read more here…

 

  • Guatemala

    100000 Floors

  • Ethiopia

    Ethiopia Water

  • Kenya

    Kenya House And Water
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“In Guatemala, we understand these struggles all too well, having endured our share of natural disasters and their consequences. As part of the global family we are, and driven by our commitment to support our sister offices and the communities we all serve together, we are honored to share that the Board of Directors at Habitat for Humanity Guatemala has decided to designate $6,000 from our annual tithe to assist with your recovery efforts.”

Financials

Fy24 Revenue Chart Final
FY2024 Audited Financials
Fy24 Expenses Chart
Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Branch at 919-814-5400. The license is not an endorsement by the State.

Meet our Staff & Board