GIVERS
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by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER photography by JULI LEONARD
More than a
HOME Local nonprofit gives dignity to homelessness
108 | WALTER
ne Raleigh woman and her daughter used to spend every afternoon waiting in line for a bed at the shelter. Now, the daughter spends her afternoons at Girl Scouts meetings. A Raleigh man used to sleep in a tent by the highway, hoping it wouldn’t rain. Now, when he sees storm clouds, he doesn’t worry that he’ll lose all of his belongings. These stories, and those of thousands in this community, have ended in hope, thanks to CASA, a Raleigh-based nonprofit that develops and manages affordable apartments in the Triangle for low-income individuals and families, many of whom are veterans or living with disabilities. For 26 years, CASA has worked with the goal that no tenant becomes homeless again. At CASA, the complex problem of homelessness is met with a seemingly simple solution: housing. “When people look at the cost of apartments to rent in our community, it’s overwhelming, and it’s easy to think there’s nothing you can do about homelessness, but there is something you can do,” says Missy Hatley, CASA’s resource development director, “And we’re doing it.” In 1993, the organization purchased its first four properties in downtown Raleigh with a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. CASA now manages 490 properties in Wake, Durham, and Orange counties. “At first, people think, oh, these affordable apartments will devalue my neighborhood, but then they find the opposite to be true,” says CEO Mary Jean Seyda. CASA often rehabs abandoned buildings or builds new structures that add to the value and vibrancy of their settings. In Raleigh, these buildings are nearly all inside the beltline, for easy access to public transportation. “It can happen to anyone,” says one tenant, a veteran whose combat injury caused a neurological condition that prevents him from holding a steady job. “I didn’t think it could happen to me. I’m educated, I went to a good school, I have a degree and had a good job, but when I got sick, I lost my savings and it was all—just gone.”
