2026 Building Hope

Date:October 15, 2026

Venue/Location:Highland Brewing Company

BUILDING HOPE:
An Evening for Affordable Housing

We are so grateful for this year’s BUILDING HOPE: An Evening for Affordable Housing at Highland Brewing Company. Attendees heard powerful stories of hope, healing, and resilience, and how your support builds homes, neighborhoods, and thriving communities. Stories like those from Melanie, Ruby, Stephanie, Greg, and Shelby are a testament to the power of home and building hope!

This year, we were proud to introduce the BUILDING HOPE Award, created to honor a person or organization that truly embodies MHO’s mission of building hope and dignity in the people we serve.

Our very first recipient was MHO board member and true community champion, Charlie Owen.

Since joining the board in 2019, Charlie has been a driving force behind MHO’s growth, from pursuing new capital sources and strengthening our governance to guiding us through the retirement of historic MHO leadership. After Helene, he worked tirelessly to meet urgent community needs while keeping us focused on long-term recovery.

Please join us in celebrating Charlie and thanking him for his years of leadership, dedication, and the hope he continues to build in our community.

As we reflect on Geoffrey’s words from the evening, the three lessons he shared stand out. First, hope cannot be built in solitude. Everyone who supports affordable housing plays a vital role in building it, and we were grateful to share how your support has made our community better.

Second, hope is all around us. High interest rates, rising material costs, regulatory complexity, and shifting federal priorities have created a perfect storm that makes building and preserving affordable homes harder than ever. Yet in times like these, we’ve found hope in plentiful supply.

Finally, and perhaps most powerfully, hope lives within each of us. We saw it in the stories shared by residents, homeowners, and supporters alike. Each story you heard was a reminder that hope isn’t something we wait to receive. It’s something we carry, nurture, and pass on to one another. The hope we hold and the hope we build are the same, and together they form the foundation of the community we’re building together.

THANK YOU to our 2026 sponsors and event partners, who made BUILDING HOPE possible! A special shout-out to Highland Brewing Company for hosting us, 67 Biltmore for providing some amazing food, The Hop Handcrafted Ice Cream for a delicious sweet treat, DJ Molly Parti for the tunes, and Silver Moon Photography for capturing the evening!