ST PAUL, Minn. — The construction of 30 new homes in St. Paul is among many events being staged to mark President Jimmy Carter's 100th birthday on Oct. 1. Considering the former president's long legacy as a philanthropist, it's no surprise that he wants any gift-giving to go to other people.
Thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers are gathering Monday to build 30 homes in St. Paul over five days. The project is led by country music giants Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who worked alongside the Carters for years, beginning with projects in Hurricane Katrina's disaster area.
"We do what we're told, you know, we get on the site and we build," Yearwood said. "Except for, I don't like to get on the roof. I'll do pretty much anything else."
The massive Habitat for Humanity build is taking place at the Heights on St. Paul's east side, the first phase of a project that will see 150 homes built by 2028 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.
"I love that they argued all the time about how to do things," Brooks said. "They were just a normal family that was extraordinary human beings."
"We feel a great responsibility to be a small part of trying to carry that on," Yearwood said.
According to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, the redevelopment project was renamed from Hillcrest to the Heights by a team of east side residents, who said the name reflects the past, present and future of the site.
"We're here all week," Yearwood said. "We have to go back one night for a little concert Garth has to do in Vegas, but we'll be back the next day."
Brooks and Yearwood also participated in a press conference with Jonathan Reckford, Habitat for Humanity International CEO. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and former mayor Chris Coleman, who joined Twin Cities Habitat as president and CEO in 2018, also spoke about the importance of affordable housing here.
"The Twin Cities is a very strong community but unfortunately we have one of the largest disparities in the rates of homeownership between the white community and communities of color, and it's particularly acute for our foundational Black families, those families that trace their roots to chattel slavery," Coleman said. "We didn't end up here by accident. This is a product of redlining, restrictive covenants, the decisions about where we built freeways all stripped our Black community of ownership opportunities … and we have to be as intentional about solving this problem as we were about creating it in the first place."
"Every hammer swing that we hear is the sound of a family moving into a home with equity," Carter added.
Families, like that of Twin Cities Habitat homeowner LeAndra Estis.
"I lost my brother to pancreatic cancer," she said. "As the homeowner of the family, I was able to provide a place that was comfortable and safe in the most uncomfortable of situations."
Twin Cities Habitat will host a public party Tuesday at the Armory to celebrate the project and Carter's 100th birthday. The Build Forward Bash is an 18+ event. Tickets are $15 but assistance is available. Property Brothers co-host and Habitat Humanitarian Jonathan Scott will emcee. The Family Stone and St. Paul and the MPLS Funk All Stars will perform.
The Carters' relationship with Habitat for Humanity stretches back 40 years, to when the couple went to New York City on a build in 1984.
“The image of a president of the United States sleeping in a church basement and physically helping rehab a tenement building captured the world,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International.
The Carters went on to build homes annually for 35 years. Carter repeatedly said that working with the organization was a way he put his Christian faith into action, Reckford recalled.
Cleora Taylor, a medical assistant, met the Carters in August 2018 when they helped build 41 new homes in South Bend and Mishawaka, Indiana.
Years later, Taylor recalled how the former president greeted her by name and knew about her children, including her daughter, who was 11 at the time and has autism.
“It means so much to me that he knew me,” said Taylor, speaking from her living room in the home the Carters helped her build, on a street named Carter Court. “He’s just such a good, welcoming, humble guy. I’m just glad to be a part of a legacy that he’s leaving behind.”
Presidential historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander, professor of Virginia Black history and culture at Norfolk State University, said the strength of Carter’s legacy is in his morality. Unlike many who claim to care about the disadvantaged, Carter has shown that they — and not power or money — are his main concern, Newby-Alexander said.
“I think he has probably done more personally in his post-presidency than anyone else because he’s not out there looking for attention,” she said. “He’s looking to change things. He’s not out there trying to make money for himself. He’s out there trying to live the life of a Christian — a true Christian, one who cares about the poor and the homeless and the children.”
While leadership in philanthropy is often gauged by the size of donations or the heft of assets under management, Carter’s giving came in the form of his seemingly ceaseless personal effort. From building homes to monitoring elections and pursuing the elimination of a painful but neglected disease, Carter used his stature and presence to rally resources and attention to his causes.
“In so many ways, he set the standard for how presidents should be in their post-presidency, as someone who is going to continue to do good, someone who’s going to continue to positively impact society,” Newby-Alexander said.
Carter’s legacy of giving back also includes working to eradicate Guinea worm, a commitment The Carter Center has made since 1986. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified the disease as a candidate for eradication after smallpox. Carter took up the mantle, vowing to outlive the last such parasite.
“To the demise of the worm” is the catchphrase, according to Dr. Jordan Tappero, deputy director for neglected tropical diseases at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has given $263 million to The Carter Center since 2000, mostly to support its work on Guinea worm.
The number of cases has fallen from 3.5 million when the center started to only 13 known cases in humans in 2022, and now focuses on closing the “last mile” of infections in several African countries. Even after Carter entered hospice in February 2023, Tappero said, Carter was still contacting his team.
“He still wants updates and wants to know what’s going on because his mind will never stop until the last heartbeat,” Tappero said, speaking in March 2023.
Carter engaged directly with health ministries and heads of state to muster their commitment to public health interventions, said Steven M. Hilton of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Since 1991, the foundation said it has committed nearly $50 million to The Carter Center for eradicating Guinea worm and to support its work treating and controlling trachoma, a disease that can cause irreversible blindness.
Hilton considers Carter to be “a remarkable man with a deeply compassionate heart.”
“I feel fortunate to have witnessed firsthand the strength of his character, including his dedication to seeing enormous humanitarian challenges through to the end,” Hilton said in a statement.
Tappero draws inspiration from the Carters’ humility, energy and dedication. “If we all had one-fifth of his energy, commitment and passion,” he said, “the world would be a much better place.”
Taylor, who lives near South Bend, Indiana, said she saw that commitment firsthand as Carter, 93 at the time, helped her put up a kitchen wall in her four-bedroom home.
“It was just so amazing that he still was out here, outside at that age, working with us,” she said. “It made us want to work harder.”
She still gets emotional thinking about that week, an incredible opportunity for her and her four kids.
“Not only did I get to meet Jimmy Carter and his wife and his children and hundreds of volunteers, other celebrities, I get to own a piece of the world. I get to own a piece of land,” Taylor said.
“I never thought that I would be able to do something like that, being a single mother. And for them to have to put so much into it, the volunteers and for Jimmy Carter to actually be here? It was amazing for people to care like he cares.”