FRIENDS IN AFFORDABLE PLACES: Garth Brooks is set to make Habitat for Humanity shine in Charlotte this fall.

• Author: Ellis, Kevin

Habitat for Humanity has roots in Georgia, the home of founders Millard and Linda Fuller and Jimmy Carter, who brought international attention to the affordable-housing nonprofit. But Charlotte has played a pivotal role in its history, a tradition that will continue in October when hundreds of volunteers are expected to build 23 homes on the city's west side.

Country music superstars Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood are slated to attend the build, bringing star power to the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The Carters began volunteering with Habitat in 1984, and in 1987 the former president and his wife joined crews that built 14 homes in Charlotte's Optimist Park neighborhood.

A home being built in October will turn Brianna Sanford's dream of homeownership into a reality. The 31-year-old substitute teacher and mother of two will trade her $1,873 apartment rent for a $600 mortgage on a three-bedroom home. She'll go from spending more than 50% of her monthly income on rent to 30% for a home, including insurance and property taxes.

"It's going to allow me to just breathe, and allow me to just let my hair down. Now it's just living from check to check to check," Sanford says.

The sharp uptick in housing costs in Charlotte--the median home price was $385,000 in May--makes the Habitat work more relevant than ever. "There's a growing need for Habitat as prices and costs increase and incomes are stagnant in comparison," says Laura Belcher, who has been CEO of Habitat's Charlotte region for nine years.

It's the first Carter Work Project since the pandemic suspended the event three years ago. Overall, Habitat is building 39 homes on the site of the former Plato Price School, which educated Black children during segregation from 1915 until 1966. "I believe we're on historic, hallowed ground," Belcher says. "This property has sat vacant for decades waiting for its higher purpose. Bringing home ownership to 39 local families and creating a neighborhood is its higher purpose."

The neighborhood is a historically Black community near Charlotte Douglas International Airport. It's in a part of the city with a homeownership rate of 26%, compared with Mecklenburg County's average of 57%. The city of Charlotte donated the land to Habitat in 2018 and has since spent more than $1 million in infrastructure improvements there. Other $1 million-plus "cornerstone" contributors to the project include Ally Charitable Foundation, Merancas Foundation...