About Us

Since 1990

Building Homes & Helping Our Community

Brick Capital’s story began in the 1970s, when the City of Sanford’s federally-funded urban renewal project demolished unsafe and unsanitary housing. This historically African American neighborhood became riddled with vacant lots, which made it prime for construction of new homes. The City of Sanford staff grasped the opportunity to create a non-profit that would head the new project of repopulating the county with affordable housing. With the help of community members and a Housing Demonstration (CDBG) grant, Brick Capital Community Development Corporation came into existence in 1990.

Between 1995 and 2009, Brick Capital built 62 units of housing, and, through this home development, Lee County experienced a large benefit of the increasing tax base. In 1998, Brick Capital built Apple Tree Apartments, a forty-unit tax credit rental project located in Sanford, that serve working families earning between 50% and 120% median income for Lee County.

In 2001, Brick Capital CDC, working in partnership with the community and other agencies, received an award of 1.75 million dollars for a small-cities CDBG Revitalization Strategies (RS) grant. Leveraging an additional 5.5 million dollars, Brick Capital transformed a blighted area and restored W. B. Wicker School (a historic Rosenwald School). For 12 years, Brick Capital, in partnership with Self-Help Ventures Fund, owned and managed the historic school, which housed a Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) Life-Long Learning Center. This Center included the CCCC Dental Hygiene Program, GED classes, English as a Second Language program, community computer lab, childcare center, small business center, and the Brick Capital CDC office.

In 2003 and 2010, Brick Capital developed supportive housing in partnership with the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. The first units built – the Lee-Harnett Haven Housing (12 units) and then the Lee-Harnett Haven II (6 units) – were for persons with disabilities and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Since then, the organization expanded and now owns and manages 22 units of supportive housing: 18 in Lee County and 4 in Chatham County. Following this development, Brick Capital partnered with HAVEN, an agency that provides services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Brick Capital served as the developer, by financing and overseeing the construction of the new, modern, energy-efficient, 29 bed shelter and offices for victims of domestic violence and their children.

Today, Brick Capital serves Lee, Moore, Harnett and Chatham counties. It is a HUD Housing Counseling Agency, assisting families with their housing including homeownership, foreclosure prevention, and rental needs. Brick Capital’s development staff secures financing and builds housing for persons with disabilities and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The housing counseling initiative responds to over 150 requests for applications and delivers over 200 hours of one-on-one counseling annually, for English and Spanish-speaking families.

Together with its partners, both public and private, Brick Capital endeavors to bring the best in housing, commercial and environment development, and education to better the lives of those in its community that are the least financially endowed. This challenging effort is ongoing and ever-changing, but, despite all the difficulties, Brick Capital will continue to care for and support its community for as long as there are individuals looking for safe and affordable housing.