Molly Painter creates a home for the homeless

Recently, Molly Painter ’95 was on the first floor of the King’s Ridge housing complex when a resident walked up to her, smiling.

“Molly,” Ronald said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I wanted to let you know that I have an interview for that job tomorrow.”

“That’s great news!” Painter replied, giving him a big hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

Ronald is one of 100 residents of King’s Ridge, a 100-unit affordable housing community that opened in Raleigh earlier this year. Painter, the visionary who championed the project, doesn’t have an official, full-time role at the facility. But she feels lucky to count every person who lives there as a friend, and she visits most weekdays. Spending time there, whether to play Wednesday night bingo or check in with the director, is her purpose.

Painter with Rebecca, a King’s Ridge resident. (Submitted photo)

‘A sense of community’

Her journey began in 2017, when Painter’s friend Katie Coleman Koon ’94 invited her to have coffee at the Women’s Shelter of Wake County, which provides stability and housing for women experiencing homelessness.

“To be honest, I assumed I was going there to help or engage,” said Painter, who said she was feeling “very uninspired” in her interior design business at the time. “Really, it was almost more helpful for me, because it opened my eyes. I got to know these women as friends and saw firsthand how they were struggling once they left the center. We have so many amazing services in Raleigh, but the system just wasn’t working. We were scratching our heads trying to figure out what was happening.”

Painter and her friends spent more than a year researching the homeless crisis in Raleigh. After reading “The Hundred Story Home,” a book about one woman’s journey to successfully establish affordable housing in Charlotte, Painter began to cry, realizing she knew the puzzle’s missing piece: community.

“Transitional housing is common but isn’t permanent,” she said. “So many people just become homeless again. The permanent piece is important, but so is community. That’s what King’s Ridge is — this is one big community.”

A sense of community shaped her experience at Carolina and throughout her life, Painter said. “It’s what holds me together, and everyone deserves to have that.”

Painter and her friends, including Koon and Fraley Connell Marshall ’93, partnered with CASA, a local nonprofit, to develop a permanent housing solution for Raleigh’s most vulnerable homeless people. Painter, whose only fundraising experience was for church and her children’s school, worked with the CASA development team to raise $26.4 million through friends, corporations and foundations, plus federal, state and local funding.

The King’s Ridge concept is unique. Every person or family has their own apartment as well as on-site access to critical resources such as case managers, health care workers and community spaces.

“My wonderful friend, Dewaun, who lives here, came to see me the day before it opened and broke down in tears,” said Painter. “He said, ‘Who would have thought to do something like this to help me?’ He’s been through such a challenging time. We have a basketball court outside, and he can’t play anymore, but he wants to put on a tournament to help raise money for King’s Ridge. Everyone here has been through so much.”

Finding her purpose

On the same day Painter met with Ronald, another resident stopped by to talk about hosting a Bible study that evening.

“What would you say it’s like living here, Rebecca?” Painter asked her.

“On the days it rains, I remember how it feels to be living out there with nowhere to go,” Rebecca said, looking out the window. “I was out there for six years. But thank God for Molly. She never gave up on us. She’s so genuine in how she feels and how she treats everybody.”

While Painter is the visionary for King’s Ridge, she is always quick to credit the close circle of friends who helped her bring this to life. “These women kept me going,” she said. She also points to experiences like volunteering with the pediatric cancer support group Carolina Pediatric Attention, Love and Support as a student, which “taught me about compassion at a young age.”

She also has the full support of her family, who are regulars at the community. Her youngest daughter, Julia, and husband, Michael Painter ’95, play bingo with the residents almost every week, and her oldest, Margaret, FaceTimes with many of them even after graduating from college and moving away. Painter’s middle daughter, Louise, is a sophomore at Carolina and created a documentary about King’s Ridge through the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Michael Painter played junior varsity basketball for the Tar Heels, and her parents, Bonnie Woodruff ’69 and Leon Woodruff ’68, attended Carolina, too. So did her brother, Ben Woodruff, who died in the tragic Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house fire at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1996.

“That shaped my entire life moving forward,” she said. “When you have something like that happen at a young age, it forces you to really figure out why we’re here and what your purpose is.”

Painter’s parents and their Carolina classmates and friends established a scholarship in honor of her brother through the Carolina Scholars Awards. Inspired to carry that spirit forward, Painter hopes to one day set up something similar for kids who live in King’s Ridge.

“My brother Ben loved UNC, and I feel like he’s with me and has boosted me along this entire journey,” she added. “I’m so thankful that our daughter Louise is there now, and we can walk on campus and create new and happy memories again. That’s been a blessing.”