From the Founder’s Desk
In November of 2024, I founded the NC Housing Table with a simple, but urgent mandate: unite voices across North Carolina to push for real housing choices for working families, renters, homeowners, and future generations. Nine months later, it’s clear—we’re no longer just building a coalition. We’re building momentum.
Across this journey, I’ve sat with local leaders in Eastern NC who are watching their young people leave because they can’t afford to stay. I’ve walked with mothers in the Triangle who drive 90 minutes to work because the nearest affordable home is counties away. I’ve heard from builders in Western North Carolina frustrated by outdated zoning codes, and pastors in Charlotte praying for members struggling to make rent. These stories aren’t isolated—they’re a pattern. A pattern we came together to change.
Building from the Ground Up
In the early days, we knew the most powerful tool we had was truth—truth rooted in real data, local stories, and people-centered policy. So we started there. In April, we released our statewide polling with Differentiators Data. The findings were staggering, but not surprising: 81% of North Carolinians believe the average person cannot find an affordable home. And the frustration is bipartisan. People are tired of being priced out, boxed in, and shut out.
But the data also revealed something else—hope. A strong majority of voters support real, common-sense solutions: ADUs, adaptive reuse, zoning modernization, and homeowner design rights. People want flexibility. They want fairness. They want future-proof policies.
From Survey to Statehouse
By May 2025, we were at the table in the General Assembly. Not as spectators—but as strategists, storytellers, and standard-bearers. We showed up with a message backed by data and people: North Carolina needs more housing—and better laws to allow it. Our advocacy, through the NC Housing Table (our 501(c)(4) arm), helped push bills on permitting reform, ADU legalization, and adaptive reuse out of committee. More work lies ahead, but we’ve shifted the conversation from if to how. That matters.
And to continue building bridges beyond the legislative arena, we recently launched the NC Housing Table Institute, our new 501(c)(3) organization. The Institute is focused on public education, events, and equipping decision-makers, stakeholders, and communities with knowledge and tools to solve the urgent housing gap—especially around “missing middle” housing, which has vanished from so many cities and towns. Everyone deserves access to a home, and the Institute ensures that that message is reaching beyond policy circles into the public square. Because people shouldn’t need to decode housing policy to live with dignity. We’re here to make it plain, accessible, and actionable.
Turning Coalitions into Campaigns
Over the past nine months, we’ve grown our reach and deepened our roots. With more than 30 organizations at the Table—from urban hubs to rural towns—we’ve become a go-to source for strategic insight, technical resources, and movement alignment.
We launched the Pro-Housing Policy Toolkit, now being used by local leaders and grassroots organizers to challenge outdated zoning codes and push for smarter land use. We brought in voices from health care, climate, and workforce development—because housing is intersectional, and our solutions must be too. And we didn’t just talk. We organized. From Wilmington to Asheville, we’ve held regional roundtables, met with mayors and county officials, and placed housing on the front page and the legislative docket. Housing wasn’t just part of the conversation—it became the conversation.
A Personal Note: Why This Matters
This work is deeply personal to me—not just professionally, but spiritually. When I came to North Carolina in August of 2021, I was just looking for a break. I’d been working nonstop in my hometown of Miami-Dade, Florida, through the heart of the pandemic. Like many people, I was trying to catch my breath. I didn’t know then that Wilmington—a place I came to be closer to family—would become the soil where purpose would find me.
At one point, I was staying in hotels—displaced, uncertain, and witnessing firsthand the barriers so many face in finding a stable home. That lived experience sparked something within me. It made the housing crisis real, not theoretical. It wasn’t data—it was my life. I still remember a drive I took with my godfather, Reverend Robert Covington, as we headed toward Raleigh. He looked at me and said, “God wants to establish you here and bring you to a higher purpose.” At the time, I didn’t know what he meant. But now I do. That higher purpose was housing.
I never imagined that journey would lead me into policy work—sitting with leaders from every political background, building coalitions, and, most recently, hosting a roundtable with Governor Josh Stein to discuss statewide housing solutions. I’m a transplant here, but the housing crisis doesn’t discriminate. Whether it’s Florida, North Carolina, or any state I’ve worked in, people are struggling to find a place to call home. That’s what makes this work sacred.
I’m a Black son of the South, born to a community that believed in family, faith, and a front porch. I’ve seen how housing shapes opportunity—and how the lack of it becomes a trap. What we’re doing through both the NC Housing Table (C4) and the NC Housing Table Institute (C3) isn’t just about units and permits. It’s about people. It’s about belonging. It’s about ensuring the people who make this state work can also afford to live in it. We say this plainly: housing is a justice issue. An economic issue. A moral issue. And for me, it’s also a calling.
What Comes Next
Nine months in, the foundation is strong—but we’re just getting started. This fall, our C4 team will track policy shifts across cities and counties in real-time. Meanwhile, the Institute will kick off a statewide housing education series to help leaders understand how to end the “missing middle” gap and unlock more housing for more people.
Our North Carolina is changing. We can either keep reacting to crisis—or we can plan for equity. And that means staying at the table. Growing it. And making it work for everyone. Because home should not be a privilege. It should be a promise.
Denzel D. Burnside III is the founder and executive director of the NC Housing Table (501(c)(4)) and the NC Housing Table Institute (501(c)(3)). Learn more at www.NCHousingTable.org.