Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas

Since 1989, Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas has provided safe and affordable homes to more than 150 families in central Arkansas.

“What we’re doing is changing lives,” said Bill Plunkett, chief executive officer of the nonprofit for 11 years. “A house is a tool to change these people’s lives.”

Along with building homes, the organization organizes “rock the block” projects at least four times a year, initiatives in which 300 to 500 volunteers go into a community and repair homes and help clean up the neighborhood. Such neighborhood revitalization projects have been done in Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, including the Baring Cross community.

“It’s just a heck of a lot of fun to see a neighborhood change,” Plunkett said. “We’ve repaired over a hundred homes [in Baring Cross], and you can see a difference in the neighborhood.”

Helping provide people with a home is not a handout, according to Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas. Each homeowner candidate assists in building the home and attends homeowner classes to help him or her become independent.

With 25 employees and about 3,000 volunteers annually, the nonprofit builds 10 to 15 homes a year; the nonprofit’s goal is to raise that number to 18 homes annually. Other goals include increasing the number of neighborhood revitalization projects to 100 per year; opening a new ReStore, where building supplies and other goods are donated by contractors and sold inexpensively to the public, in Cabot; building more homes in Lonoke County; starting the building of homes in Perry County; and increasing the operating budget by 5 to 10 percent annually.

The organization’s revenue in 2015 was nearly $5.7 million, and operating and administrative expenses were nearly $3.3 million. Revenue was up 10 percent in 2015.