Many Ways to Support the Mission: A Message from Board Chair Tony Barranco

Tony Barranco is Chair of the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors. We're immensely grateful for his leadership, enthusiasm, and advocacy as Board Chair. As we celebrate a month of thanking our supporters—we call it Thankuary—Tony reflects on how he got involved and stays inspired to support Habitat's mission.

Pictured above: Tony at the fall 2025 CEO Build, along with Habitat homeowner Buffy and Twin Cities Habitat President and CEO Chris Coleman.

On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the supporters, volunteers, and donors of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.  Your support is the force that drives our mission to expand affordable homeownership and advance racial equity housing. Safe and stable housing is one of the key social determinants of health. It truly has the power to transform families, allowing neighbors to build wealth and change their trajectory forever. That said, we are facing a nationwide housing affordability crisis and now more than ever, we need your support!    
I was introduced to Habitat almost 20 years ago on a Ryan Companies-sponsored Habitat build. One of the seven values that we live at Ryan is stewardship. As I began looking at where I could best apply my time and talent in giving back, Habitat was an easy choice. My work at Ryan has included the development and construction of all types of housing. This experience has put me at the center of the housing affordability crisis. It has also provided a unique set of experiences that have been crucial to understand as the Twin Cities Habitat service model has evolved.  
 
Just a few short years ago, a significant amount of Habitat's work was done in the purchase and rehab of single family homes, primarily in the core urban areas of the Twin Cities. While that will always be part of the work we do at Habitat, we realized that our mission would need to evolve to serve more families.

This evolution caused our talented Habitat development and construction teams to advance more multi-unit projects including our newest large-scale multiphase development at The Heights in Saint Paul. Formerly the Hillcrest Golf Course, the 112-acre site sat unused for years until the City of Saint Paul, community leaders, developers, and local partners came together around a shared vision: to turn the space into a thriving, mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood. When complete, The Heights will include more than 1,000 new housing units, parks and green space, retail areas, trails, and sustainable infrastructure. 
 
Audacious project like The Heights would not be possible without even greater support—and boy, has this community stepped up!   
 
Volunteerism at The Heights
More than 6,000 volunteers have completed a collective 10,111 days building at The Heights. During the busy summer season, the site hosted up to seven volunteer groups per day—nearly 100 volunteers daily. The large scale of The Heights means we can welcome more corporate partners while still engaging our Regular Crews and individual regular volunteers.
 
The Carter Work Project alone featured:
•    More than 4,000 volunteers from 38 states and several countries 
•    75+ sponsors
•    $10M raised in cash and in-kind product
 
There are so many ways to give your time, talent, and treasure to support the Habitat mission. You can volunteer on a Habitat job site or at one of our three ReStore Home Improvement Outlets. You can join us at one of our many Habitat events—tickets are now on sale for the 2026 Hard Hat & Black Tie Gala. And as always, we'd love it if you can continue to be a donor. On behalf of our entire Board, Thank you! Thank you!