Lauren Efird
Lauren Efird
The Carr Center
Cary, NC
The Carr Center is a mixed-use development on church-owned land aimed at addressing multiple community issues. Housing is the bedrock of this development. The Carr Center will provide 51 units of affordable housing to households between 30% and 60% of the area median income as well as 11 units of program housing. The 51 units of affordable housing will be owned by DHIC, a leading nonprofit affordable housing developer in central North Carolina. The program housing units will be part of The Carying Place’s housing inventory and dedicated to their mission of housing and empowering working families with children experiencing homelessness. The ground floor will contain the Greenwood Forest Children’s Center for early childhood education, non-profit offices for The Carying Place, and amenities for the upper floor apartments. The local YMCA branch will also bring its programming to the ground floor.
About Lauren Efird: Lauren Efird is senior pastor of Greenwood Forest Baptist Church. She previously served as an associate pastor at Greenwood Forest from 2011 to 2016, after which she was called as Senior Pastor. Lauren has degrees from Campbell University and Duke Divinity School. She is the first female to lead Greenwood Forest. Lauren is committed to community development and making an impact in her neighborhood.
Affordable housing and child care were identified by the community of Cary as two of the most pressing needs for families. Housing costs in Cary are significantly higher than the national average, For working families who are experiencing homelessness, this is a double cost impact. Lauren Efird and Greenwood Forest Church began to consider how the church could be a better steward of its resources and location in 2019.
The Carr Center project is truly a community partnership. After conversations with partners across the region, everyone told the congregation that if they had land that the most urgent need was housing. Through those conversations and congregational discernment, the partnerships with The Carying Place and DHIC were born. Later in the process, the Town of Cary joined the project and purchased adjoining land to build homeownership-oriented affordable housing. The goal is to have
families moving in by 2027.
