by Jennifer Lankford
Many people cannot count the times they have seen someone who presented as homeless and wished they could do something to help. Short of inviting that person to come live in your home, what can one person do?
Leslie Covington is the executive director for The Carying Place (TCP). She explained that 33 years ago, Milt Douglass had a similar experience when he was helping a friend move and saw a family wandering around downtown Cary that appeared to be homeless.
“After passing by the family several times, [Milt] asked them if they were okay,” Covington said. “He found out they were a homeless family trying to figure out what to do next. So, he took them out for coffee and decided to do something about it.”
Covington, who has worked with TCP for 11 years, explained that before Douglass founded this program, he was a volunteer with Dorcas Ministries (now NeighborUp), which was then known as Christian Communities in Action. Douglass also volunteered with Step Up Ministries. He reached out to fellow volunteers from both organizations as well as local churches to form The Carying Place (TCP). One of the churches that initially agreed to help, Greenwood Forest Baptist Church, continues to host the TCP weekly program nights.
Douglass served as the TCP director for 10 years. He passed away in 2017, leaving a far-reaching legacy of changed lives. To date, The Carying Place has assisted more than 590 families, impacting approximately 1,500 children.
TCP, a non-profit organization, has a unique approach to empowering homeless working families. The first step is to house them for 16 weeks. However, the program extends far beyond housing by teaching financial literacy and essential life skills. After the initial four months, participants may transition into graduate programming focused on workforce development and home ownership preparation. By working with the entire family, including the children, TCP strives to build lasting stability and create generational change through its Journey Home Program.
Covington explains that “Douglass took concepts from both organizations — Dorcas and Step Ahead. He took what he liked but then made it into his own. Neither one of them provided housing, but we provide the actual houses where people live. And we specifically do more with financial management. Step Ahead is workforce development, and Dorcas, at the time, was emergency care, but neither one had housing.”
Every Thursday evening, families meet with volunteers and staff case managers to work through weekly budgets, debt repayment strategies, and credit improvement. Children participate in age-appropriate lessons focused on goal setting, money management, and life skills.
During the four months of transitional short-term housing, Covington said there are many teachable moments. TCP pays all utility bills, but if the water usage is higher than normal, for example, it allows them an opportunity to discuss with program participants the reason those bills are higher and what might be done to lower them. An example Covington shared is that sometimes the toilet might run nonstop and needs to be fixed. This is a teachable moment that relates directly to bills and financial management strategies.
Participants in the four-month program (or boot camp, as Covington likes to call it) are expected to be actively involved in improving their financial situation. This includes sharing details such as income, debt, and credit scores with case managers. The purpose is to improve each participant’s financial situation.
On the TCP website, a TCP graduate is quoted as saying, “We have learned lifetime skills to budget, plan our finances, and coping skills have been introduced as resources to help our family succeed in different areas. We went through the motions of others having full access to our finances and past mistakes, and it has truly helped us build better habits that will not allow us to fall back into the same rabbit hole. Please utilize your support team. They are your number one resource. The experience, wisdom, and resources they have are like no other. Be open to their input and perspective. It will be hard at first, but worth it in the end.”
Beyond Four Months: The Journey Continues
After completing the four-month housing program, families are encouraged to participate in graduate programming. This long-term support includes monthly enrichment workshops, workforce development, education planning through partners like Wake Tech, and preparation for homeownership with Habitat for Humanity.
“So, after you’re a graduate of our transitional housing, you can still work with our graduate manager on the next level of life and financial management skills,” Covington said. She added that this involves deeper debt management payoff work, and she said the TCP graduate manager is helping people get jobs at a more livable wage for families that aren’t making enough money.
“[The graduate manager] is seeing if you need a certification, if you need to go back to school, and if there are resources we have links to that will help pay for school,” Covington said. She added that TCP has a dedicated staff member at Wake Tech who helps get families registered. This part of the program also helps prepare families for home ownership. That preparation may include paying off debt, developing a savings plan, and utilizing grants for home ownership.
For example, Covington said the TCP Program has a good working relationship with Habitat for Humanity. “Our partnership allows us to talk to the staff at Habitat about preparing a family to apply. [Habitat for Humanity] has a high number of people applying, but not a high number of people being accepted, because [applicants] don’t provide everything they should. So, we help people navigate that process,” she explained.
Covington said TCP strongly encourages participants to stay with them for graduate programming. “They don’t have to, but that is where you really build the teeth and the grit to stay stable.” The graduate programming group meets once a month for an enrichment workshop/activity. The graduate manager also meets with participants on a one-on-one basis as needed for case management.
Testing a New Model: Graduate Housing
Recognizing that some families need additional time to complete education or career transitions, The Carying Place recently launched a Graduate Housing Pilot Program. This initiative allows select graduate families to remain housed for up to an additional year while completing degrees, certifications, or career advancement.
Covington said they have a graduate family in which the mother is working on workforce development, and TCP allows her to stay for an additional year, in graduate housing, while her degree is in progress. “We are doing this to try it out because she showed a lot of promise. And she can stay as long as her degree to improve income is in progress for that year.” This graduate housing pilot program is currently helping its second family to build sustainable income for its participants.
Lives Changed
Since its establishment in 1993, TCP has changed countless lives. Covington shared two stories and said both of these participants have also made videos about their journeys.
Kamilla, a Cary schoolteacher, entered the program after losing her home during a divorce. A counselor at school told Kamilla about TCP. With support from The Carying Place, she stabilized her finances, earned a master’s degree in education, became an assistant principal, and purchased a home. Today, she volunteers for TCP to help guide graduate programming. She also helps to mentor and better understand families currently in the Journey Home Program at TCP.
Kai, another graduate, overcame homelessness that resulted from caring for her ill father. Covington said that even after he passed away, she was left paying off his debts, and she ended up homeless with two young daughters. Covington said Kai built a lot of self-confidence with TCP. Through workforce development at NeighborUp (Dorcas Ministries at the time) and financial coaching, she advanced to become a Global Human Resources Coordinator at Red Hat, purchased a Habitat home, and now serves on The Carying Place’s Board of Directors. Covington added that Kai also helps identify other graduates who might serve on the TCP Board.
Powered by Community
Each year, more than 1,000 volunteers support The Carying Place, from financial coaches and meal teams to maintenance crews who care for the homes that families live in. Partnerships with NeighborUp, Wake Tech, Habitat for Humanity, and the Town of Cary help strengthen the organization’s impact. Covington said the Town of Cary helps TCP buy homes for its families through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). That partnership has helped purchase 15 homes to date. The only one the Town of Cary did not help to pay for was a gift from a local foundation.
In the 11 years that Covington has been with TCP, she said the needs have grown deeper. “We used to see more single-parent families coming to us, but that dynamic has changed since COVID. There are more couples, and more multi-generational families trying to live all together,” she explained. She added that more people are now less stable in general and haven’t been able to catch up because the cost of living is so high.
Covington readily states that although housing is an immediate need, no need is isolated as a stand-alone concern. “No immediate need comes alone,” she said. “You can get housing, but if you can’t afford the housing, what’s the point? It is more than just one thing. We understand that if you don’t know how to manage your finances, what’s the point of giving you housing? In general, the families we serve are able-bodied, mentally able people who have the ability — it’s just that they don’t have the knowledge. And they don’t have the respite time to stop and learn, and to do it on their own. And that’s our job.”
She added that the learning and knowledge provided to the TCP participants’ children will benefit their future as adults. So, TCP is setting them up for a solid future of success, creating generational change. “We only take working families with children because our main goal is not just to change the trajectory of the adult, but the children and the children’s children.” Poverty can be inherited, so it is TCP’s goal to help children where they are so they won’t experience hard times like their ancestors.
While TCP only accepts families with jobs, they are part of the Wake County Continuum of Care’s Coordinated Entry System, helping anyone experiencing homelessness. So other organizations within that system work with individuals who do not have jobs.
Funding & Future Growth
As housing costs rise and financial education remains uneven, the need for The Carying Place continues to grow. TCP is funded in various ways, including grants through the Town of Cary for the houses, funding from individuals, organizations, and both family and personal foundations. Covington said they also receive workforce support, donor-advised funds, and stocks, and TCP holds a fundraising gala once a year to raise funds in various ways. Municipal support and grants are also both incredibly helpful.
Covington welcomes anyone to get in touch with TCP if they would like to contribute in any way. She is very excited to share that TCP is building a new building to house the program on the campus of Greenwood Forest Baptist Church. “The church is so invested that they’re taking a part of their land, and they’re long-term leasing it to one of the premier nonprofit affordable housing developers of this area, Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation (DHIC).” TCP will get an additional 11 housing units and an office with this building project. This will bring their total number of units to 26, and TCP will own the units and the office.
Greenwood Forest Baptist Church will also get a new childcare facility as a result of this building project. Covington said one of TCP’s staff members and its board chairperson attended childcare there. She added that some other TCP board members also went to school there. “So, it’s a historical, long-term, successful childcare facility, and it will now have a new home. And our children [in the TCP program] will be able to go to school in the same building they live in.” The groundbreaking is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. We have 18 months to build, so it should be open by 2028,” she said. Covington added that it will be the first project of this kind in Cary.
If you would like to give time or money to The Carying Place, there is information on the TCP website about many ways to help change lives. Covington said volunteers can help with a variety of jobs, such as counseling participants about budgeting, helping to feed families during the Thursday night group meetings, maintaining the family housing units, assisting in the TCP office, and more. If you are interested in becoming a participant in the TCP program, you can either call TCP or complete an intake form online at thecaryingplace.org. That initial contact will be followed by an assessment interview with a staff member. For more information, call 919-462-1800 or email info@thecaryingplace.org.
