Honoring President Jimmy Carter

We join the world in honoring former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and thank him for his life of service. For nearly 40 years, he and Rosalynn Carter have been Habitat for Humanity’s most famous volunteers and affordable housing champions. President Carter once said, “I haven’t been on a Habitat project that I wasn’t thrilled and inspired, and wept.”

Beginning in 1984 and every year since then (with the exception of three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the Carters volunteered with Habitat, and have worked alongside more than 104,000 volunteers in communities across the U.S. and in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,390 homes. Here in the Bay Area, President and Mrs. Carter joined projects in Oakland and San Jose in 2013.

In fact, our chapter, Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, was started in 1989 because of a chance encounter between our founder Steve Jacoby and the former First Lady. At the time, Steve was an airline pilot and met Rosalynn Carter on a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. He asked the First Lady why there wasn’t a Habitat affiliate in San Francisco and she answered plainly and directly: because he hadn’t started one yet. Today, our affiliate celebrates 35 years of transforming families’ lives and moving the needle proudly for more BIPOC families to become first-time homeowners in the Bay Area.

President Carter was 56 years young when he left the White House and has often described how he confronted his retirement years. In his memoir, he shared his personal reflection about how he wanted to spend his post-presidency years, asking himself pointedly, “What am I going to do with 20 years?” He was determined to continue his commitment to public service, human rights and racial justice. And so, he and Mrs. Carter teamed up with Habitat, becoming tireless advocates, active fundraisers, and some of our best hands-on construction volunteers.

We are extraordinarily grateful to President Carter for his unwavering and unparalleled dedication to Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a place to call home. And we are inspired by his humility, compassion and active volunteerism.

“President Carter generously and humbly contributed his time and talents to help make the dream of homeownership a reality for thousands of low-income families. Ask anyone who volunteered with him at a Habitat build and they’ll tell you he wasn’t there for a photo op. He was famously hands-on at construction sites and embraced every task. He didn’t let the fact that he’d served as President get in the way of picking up a hammer, a saw, or a paintbrush. He is an inspiration for how we can help others by living our values,” said Maureen Sedonaen, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco.

It’s a legacy that he carried throughout all stages of his life, as our board member, Hilary Billings, recalls from meeting President Carter during the summer of 1977 as a young person in Plains, Georgia. She was on a cross-country road trip when she had the good fortune of seeing President Carter playing a casual game of pickup baseball.

“I’ll never forget that moment. There was President Carter, the most powerful man in the world, standing in the middle of a rural field smiling, laughing and joking with friends. Even at 14, I knew this was remarkable. And looking back today, it’s even harder to imagine another acting U.S. president behaving in such a humble and quietly dignified manner. It is a testament to President Carter’s consistency of character. At every step of his life, he treated others with kindness and looked for opportunities to level the playing field. It is one of the many reasons why Habitat for Humanity and President Carter were such a perfect pairing. When you step onto a Habitat build, whether you are a doctor, a lawyer or the President of the United States, everyone is equal in that moment and working towards a shared goal,” said Hilary Billings Board Member of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco.