09/24/2026
Fall Reflection: We Help People Get Housed. We Need Help Keeping Them There.
September 2026 | By Vickie Craighead-Davis, Founder and Executive Director, Building Hope Building Commitment
If you trust BHBC enough to send us someone who needs housing, I am asking you to trust us enough to invest in the work.
For more than 15 years, I have helped people move from homelessness toward housing stability. I have worked alongside organizations, as well as house colleagues, faith communities, and families committed to that same mission.
I also know homelessness through lived experience, twice. And I have continued leading this organization after losing my only child.
Those experiences are part of what I bring to this work: professional knowledge, personal understanding, grief, faith, and a commitment to helping people rebuild stability.
I choose to share my story. Our participants never owe the public theirs.
At Building Hope Building Commitment—BHBC—I ask people for commitment. I ask them to communicate, participate in their plans, and work with us toward stability. I offer commitment in return.
Today, I am asking our community to stand behind that commitment.
Charlotte has plenty competing for its attention. The headlines keep coming. The political debates continue. Meanwhile, families are trying to survive another month, secure housing, or hold on to the housing they already have.
BHBC remains focused on those families.
More than 30 referrals are waiting for help that we currently lack the staff and funding to provide.
Behind each referral is a household facing a barrier, a setback, or the possibility of losing stability. Some need help overcoming credit issues, previous evictions, a criminal record, limited income, or the shortage of housing they can afford. Others have already moved in and need support before a problem becomes another housing crisis.
BHBC is not stopping. We are asking for the resources to carry this responsibility well.
Mecklenburg County’s August 2026 One Number identified 2,604 people experiencing homelessness, including 145 Veterans and 785 people experiencing chronic homelessness. It also identified 201 households with minor children, totaling 692 people. These figures describe people identified through the local homelessness response system as of August 31; they do not capture everyone experiencing housing insecurity. (mecklenburghousingdata.org)
BHBC volunteered to participate in the Point-in-Time count, and we remain committed to that work. Accurate data matters because it helps our community understand who needs assistance and where resources are needed.
But counting people must lead to serving them. And serving people requires sustained capacity.
Our own records show both the reach of BHBC’s work and the needs participants bring with them.
In 2025, our impact report, drawn from HUD reporting, documented 174 people served across 150 households, including 74 Veterans and 22 people identified as chronically homeless.
Our 2026 HUD Annual Performance Report, covering January 1 through August 31, documents:
* 247 people served across 194 households.
* 93 Veterans, 38 children, and 26 adults age 65 or older.
* 32 people identified as chronically homeless.
* At program entry, 79 participants with a recorded mental health disorder, 82 with a chronic health condition, and 74 with a physical disability. These categories can overlap.
Those are people served during the reporting period, including new and continuing participants.
Among 55 people who exited BHBC programs during those eight months, 27 exited to a permanent housing destination, including 18 recorded as renting without an ongoing housing subsidy.
Those outcomes matter. They also require honest interpretation: an exit destination does not establish whether someone remained housed a year later. That is why continued support and housing-retention measurement are essential.
Our Retention-Centered Stabilization Model, RCSM, connects housing access with the work that follows: identifying barriers, developing stabilization plans, coordinating resources, maintaining contact, and responding when circumstances change.
Some participants need sustained coordination with mental health, substance-use, medical, or benefits providers. Older adults may need help navigating services while managing a fixed income or declining health. Working households may need support after a missed shift, transportation problem, or unexpected expense.
Many adult participants work or have income. Participants in our community housing program contribute through program fees. They are carrying responsibilities of their own.
A household can be paying its housing costs and still need help protecting its stability.
Housing placement matters. Housing retention is the promise we have to keep.
BHBC’s work now spans four projects, including paid resident services across two sites: The Park at Ferentino, or PAF, and 1001 Tyvola.
Through our work with Community Solutions and BDP Impact Real Estate, we provide resident services that support successful tenancy, connect people to resources, and help address problems before they threaten housing. Veterans and people exiting homelessness are an important focus of this work.
The January–August APR recorded 84 people served at PAF, 14 at 1001 Tyvola, and 149 through our community Services Only project. Those results cover the three projects in that reporting period.
Our fourth project is the VA Grant and Per Diem Transition in Place expansion. BHBC’s grant agreement provides for 10 Veteran beds, with an award period beginning October 1, 2026.
I am proud of that progress. I understand the responsibility that comes with it.
We have demonstrated that BHBC can deliver paid services across two sites while continuing its broader community work. Yet our largest project by people served—the community Services Only project—still needs dedicated support.
A Veteran program has defined requirements. A site contract pays for specified responsibilities. Those resources do not automatically fund every household referred to us elsewhere in Mecklenburg County.
An organization can earn revenue, secure opportunities, and still lack the funding needed to serve the next family.
Our 2025 audited financial statements recorded $80,658 in program service revenue. Across all sources, BHBC recorded $412,647 in revenue and support against $405,577 in expenses, resulting in a $7,070 increase in net assets.
Those numbers belong together. Revenue shows resources coming into the organization. Expenses show what it takes to carry out the work. Neither a contract nor an award eliminates the need for careful financial planning.
And that brings me to fiscal responsibility.
We help participants build realistic budgets, protect their housing, and make commitments they can sustain. I have a responsibility to lead BHBC with that same discipline.
I cannot teach financial stability while committing this organization to money that has not been secured.
Some funding opportunities require a match that BHBC cannot currently provide without additional support. When people encourage us to “leverage funds,” I need to know where those resources will come from, whether they qualify, when they will arrive, and what other obligations they already carry.
Federal matching contributions can include eligible cash or in-kind support, but they must meet applicable requirements and be verifiable. (ecfr.gov)
A hoped-for donation cannot pay today’s payroll. Revenue committed to delivering one contract cannot automatically cover another project. A reimbursement expected later does not eliminate expenses due now.
A larger award can create a larger financial crisis if the organization cannot afford its share of the work.
Reserves, consistent revenue, and realistic spending plans help protect service continuity. The National Council of Nonprofits identifies operating reserves as a way to sustain an organization through unexpected shortfalls, with the appropriate reserve level depending on its circumstances. (councilofnonprofits.org)
For BHBC, responsible growth means knowing the full cost of services and protecting commitments already made.
A spend-down deadline does not erase next month’s obligations. If meeting a match or spending plan drains the resources needed for staff, housing commitments, and participant support—with no dependable way to replenish them—we could destabilize the organization families are counting on.
I will not treat that risk casually.
I know what instability costs. I have lived it. I see what it does to the people we serve. My responsibility includes protecting BHBC’s ability to answer the phone tomorrow, next month, and next year.
That is why we need recurring gifts, funded staff hours, operating support, and partners willing to help secure an eligible match before we assume an additional obligation.
The people waiting for help deserve an organization that can keep its commitments.
Our faith communities can help build that foundation. I have seen what organized faith can accomplish.
I worked for Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry, ABCCM, which publicly reports support from more than 300 churches and more than 6,000 trained volunteers. That example shows what congregations can build when they commit together. (abccm.org)
Rev. Scott Rogers is an advisor to BHBC. In 2020, he encouraged me to mobilize Charlotte’s faith community.
I have carried that encouragement with me. I am doing my best to honor God, the confidence Scott placed in me, and the commitment I made to this work.
I am deeply grateful for Stonebridge, Rockwell AME Zion, and Northside Church of Christ. They see the work and support us in the ways they can. I do not take that support for granted.
Our partnership with Northside Church of Christ, connected to the City of Charlotte’s Faith in Housing cohort, includes BHBC’s role as the service provider within the planned housing development.
That partnership connects the vision for housing with the services residents will need after move-in. Those services need a place in the planning process and the operating budget.
I know congregations are already helping people through immediate emergencies. Paying for a hotel can give a family somewhere safe to sleep. I respect that generosity.
I am asking us to carry that compassion into a sustained housing plan: removing barriers, supporting a move into housing, and maintaining contact after the immediate crisis has passed.
Some of the people who call BHBC are sitting in church pews. They worship, pray, contribute when they can, and still need housing support. We help them work toward stability, then struggle to secure sustained support for the organization doing that work.
When I ask for that ongoing investment, too often the response is silence.
The referrals keep coming. The resources need to follow.
Consider what 20 congregations contributing $500 each month could generate: $10,000 monthly, or $120,000 annually.
That is one example of shared commitment. Congregations with smaller budgets can participate at a level they can sustain. Predictable support helps us plan staffing, maintain services, and respond responsibly.
Gifts designated for household needs must support those purposes. Unrestricted operating gifts help fund the staff and systems required to deliver services. Both are necessary.
Someone has to answer the phone, coordinate with a landlord, develop a plan, document progress, connect a participant to resources, and follow up.
The person doing that work belongs in the budget.
To other organizations serving Mecklenburg County: I am your ally.
We have responded to your referrals, helped address housing barriers, and worked alongside you to move people toward stability. I want those relationships to grow.
When BHBC helps deliver an outcome, acknowledge our contribution. Bring us into planning conversations. Include our services in funded partnerships. Help us build the capacity to respond when the next household needs assistance.
I know resources are tight across this community. I respect the organizations working hard to sustain their own missions. That makes mutual, funded collaboration even more necessary.
I have carried this work through grief, contributed personal resources, and kept finding ways forward. I have reached the limit of what I can responsibly carry without more staffing and dependable support.
Please stop confusing determination with unlimited capacity.
There are practical ways to stand with BHBC:
* Make a recurring gift or fund staff hours for housing navigation, stabilization, and retention follow-up.
* Become a faith partner and commit financial resources, volunteers, or coordinated household support.
* Help secure eligible matching support and operating funds so BHBC can pursue opportunities responsibly.
* Offer mentorship or explore board service, bringing experience in finance, fundraising, governance, or organizational development.
* Coordinate donations of usable clothing, household essentials, and gently used appliances based on current participant needs.
* Bring a resource to our Fall Festival and connect with families and neighbors.
* Include BHBC in a funded service partnership when your residents or participants need housing-stabilization support.
BHBC is continuing this work. We are documenting the need, delivering services, building partnerships, and asking our community to help us grow responsibly.
More than 30 referrals are waiting. Families already served still need support protecting the stability they have worked to build.
If you believe housing retention matters, invest in the capacity that makes it possible.
I have committed my experience, faith, and determination to this mission. I am asking our community to commit alongside me.
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No Labels. No Limits. Just Hope — BHBC.
