Statement from Habitat NYC and Westchester CEO Sabrina Lippman:
“New Yorkers and global citizens alike have lost one of our greatest advocates for affordable housing, self-help homeownership, and shelter for all. We add our voices to the chorus around the world celebrating a life well-built.
President Carter’s leadership and commitment to decent, affordable housing was rooted in his faith, belief in family, and an unwavering dedication to the idea that we can create a better life for all by lifting each other up and working together to accomplish our shared goals.
We cannot overstate our appreciation for just how much Habitat for Humanity and the people we’ve served around the world have benefited from the support of President and Mrs. Carter, may they both rest in peace.
As New Yorkers, we have a special bond with President Carter. He and Mrs. Carter’s first engagement with Habitat for Humanity was in Manhattan, when he participated in the first-ever Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project at Mascot Flats in the city’s Lower East Side in 1984—and he returned to build with us three more times, most recently in 2013.
The Habitat family has lost a tireless champion, but his legacy will endure—through every home he helped build and every home our organization continues to build across New York, the nation, and the world.”
Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County mourns the loss of President Jimmy Carter, one of our organization’s most famous volunteers, who played a vital role in supporting Habitat’s work here at home and around the world for more than three decades.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s involvement with Habitat NYC and Westchester began in 1984 when the former President came to promote affordable homeownership and led a work group to help renovate a six-story Lower East Side building, Mascot Flats, with 19 families who became first-time homeowners. That initial visit led to the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which has been an internationally recognized Habitat event ever since. The Carters returned to the tenement site in July 1985 to complete the work.
In 2000, the Carters joined volunteers in New York to build new homes on the same day other organizations were building homes nationwide in honor of the occasion marking Habitat’s milestone of 100,000 homes built.
At the New York site, President and Mrs. Carter joined 150 volunteers in the struggle to resolve New York City’s housing crisis by working in a restored 10-unit apartment building in Harlem. In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, volunteers and partner families finished a new apartment building. That week, 157 houses were constructed nationwide.
On October 10, 2013, President Carter returned to the Mascot Flats property and also visited Habitat NYC and Westchester home renovation sites in Queens. More than 1,000 volunteers joined President and Mrs. Carter to help renovate five Queens homes as well as repair 10 Superstorm Sandy-damaged homes on Staten Island. This effort served to kick-off the 30th Annual Carter Work Project.
“The Habitat family has lost a tireless champion, but his legacy will endure,” said Habitat NYC and Westchester CEO Sabrina Lippman in a release to media upon news of President Carter’s passing. “His legacy will endure through every home he helped build and every home our organization continues to build across New York City and Westchester County, the nation, and the world.”
According to Habitat for Humanity International, President and Mrs. Carter have…
Worked alongside 104,000 volunteers
Built, renovated and repaired 4,390 Habitat homes
Worked in 14 countries around the world
Memories with President Carter
