Over 35 years, Jimmy Carter’s housing advocacy with Habitat for Humanity International took him all around the world.
He helped people rebuild homes after devastating earthquakes in Haiti and after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. He flew to Europe, Asia and Africa, put on a hard hat or cap, tied a red bandanna around his neck and got to work.
Over time, he became closely associated with the organization, and many Americans lived under the fallacy that he was the group’s founder, said Habitat for Humanity’s chief executive officer Jonathan Reckford.
“What is true, is he put it on the map. When he got involved in 1984 that’s when the world found out about Habitat. His sustained involvement inspired so many people to become part of the movement to tackle affordable housing,” Reckford said.
Carter’s work for the housing advocacy group began in Georgia, when Habitat’s original founders, Millard and Linda Fuller, approached the president and former first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter with the idea of empowering people to commit their own labor to build their homes — with the help of an army of volunteers.
Though today Habitat for Humanity generates billions of dollars in revenue, the Fullers’ ministry of housing was founded in the 1970s at a farm in Americus, about 130 miles south of Atlanta. They held their first meeting in an old, converted chicken barn.
Linda Fuller said they asked for Carter’s help after hearing about his lessons in Sunday school, his passion for woodwork and working with his hands, and his plans to convert the garage at his Plains home into a study. She said the Carters became linked with the group in the public’s mind because of the solicitation letters the group sent out with the 39th president’s signature.
“It just exploded,” said Linda Fuller, who eventually left Habitat and went on to form The Fuller Center for Housing. Millard Fuller died in 2009 at age 74.
Credit: pjb/cjg
Credit: pjb/cjg
Carter’s first Habitat building project was close to their home in Plains, and in 1984 they helped volunteers revamp an abandoned property in New York’s Lower East Side. Before he died on Dec. 29, Carter would go on to work on more than 4,000 homes in 14 countries. His backing helped transform Habitat for Humanity into a household name. Over the decades it has helped 62 million people build or renovate their homes, according to the group.
Reckford said Carter understood how fundamental housing is to people’s lives, and was a staunch advocate for the group’s mission to provide safe and stable housing.
“The bad news is Atlanta was once one of the most affordable big cities in America, and that’s far less true than it was five years ago,” he said. “At the same time, land is more expensive, labor is more expensive, materials are more expensive and interest rates are up. Everything that drives affordability has gone in the wrong direction.”
Atlanta Habitat president and CEO Rosalyn Merrick met the Carters in person during a study abroad trip to Cuba in 2002, when she was a 22-year-old student at Georgia State University.
Their housing legacy would be preserved in the Atlanta region where dozens of homes were built under the Carter Work Project, a partnership with Habitat for Humanity, she said.
In 1988, Atlanta was one of the first cities to host the inaugural Carter Work Project, later renamed the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, according to Atlanta Habitat. Over the course of a single week, 1,000 volunteers built 21 homes in the Edgewood neighborhood in the city’s east side.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Sally Mae Hollis, 86, was among those who moved in to a new home on Foote Street after the Carters helped her work on the home. She recalled the Carters showing up with law enforcement and security in tow. Over the course of a day and a half, he worked on her back deck, hammering nails and cutting wood. She remembers plenty of laughter and how Carter dazzled people with his smile.
“I could feel he loved people. I thought that he could get along with anybody. He was that type of person that loved human beings. And she did, too. When they weren’t working, they were standing up holding hands,” she said.
At her dining room table, Hollis leafed through pages of a photo album which showed a signed portrait of the Carters and a picture of the bones of her home, when it was still a work in progress. Behind her was a framed Habitat for Humanity International poster with signatures of the volunteers who worked on the building project. She pointed to a faded, swirling black scrawl belonging to Jimmy Carter.
She agreed Carter’s mission to get people into homes is never more timely.
“A lot of young people, they can’t get a house now. We were blessed to get these,” she said. “He blessed people, too. I’m going to miss him and a lot of other people are going to miss him.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
More recently, Carter’s housing advocacy work was enshrined in Browns Mill Village, an Atlanta Habitat project in the Orchard Knob neighborhood. This past October, the organization honored his legacy by dedicating six new homes to the Carters during the week of his 100th birthday. The homes are on a street called Carter Way.
Carter was fiercely competitive and would do everything in his power to make sure the house he was working on was finished first, Linda Fuller said.
“That was fine. We let him do that. That was the least we could do,” she said. “I’ve seen him at midnight on the floor putting tile down because he didn’t want to get one minute behind. He was just a real inspiration for other people to really work hard because he worked hard.”
Reckford worked on more than a dozen building projects with the former president and said he would hand out bibles to new homeowners once the job was done. Reckford would warn volunteers to be ready to bring their A-game if they worked with Carter, a former naval officer and submariner.
“You do not want to be caught by the president slacking off and get that submarine commander glare,” Reckford said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Carter’s final building project was in October 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the CEO. But the day he was due to arrive, Carter was hospitalized after a fall in his home. It was the same week as his 95th birthday.
When Reckford asked if he could still make it, Carter sent a message saying, “I’m coming.” He showed up at a rally for volunteers that evening with stitches, a bandage on his brow and a swollen, black eye.
“I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses,” Carter told volunteers, an Atlanta Braves baseball cap on his head.
Reckford said it’s impossible to separate Carter from his native Georgia, where all the work began.
“I’ve never seen a time where housing was finally on the agenda. Unfortunately, it’s because the gap between what families can afford and housing costs has never been wider,” Reckford said. “I think his message to all of us is: get back to work. That’s the best way to honor the extraordinary legacy of President Carter.”
Credit: Habitat for
Credit: Habitat for
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