A conversation with Rise Community Development’s new executive director, Terrell Carter

Terrell Carter has been a police officer. He’s been a construction worker. He’s worked in academia, served as a pastor, and written several books. He’s had many jobs but only one calling. “I believe everybody is created with a purpose,” Carter says. “My purpose is to be an advocate for communities that struggle.” Now, Carter is using all of his experiences to fulfill that calling as executive director of Rise Community Development, a local nonprofit that helps develop affordable housing and works to increase economic diversity in St. Louis neighborhoods. Carter, who left his post as vice president and chief diversity officer at Greenville University to join Rise in March, approaches his new position with hopes of not only making the housing market more navigable but also assisting neighborhoods in getting all the services they need.

How does the work you’ve done in various sectors prepare you for your new job? It has taught me to understand multiple groups of people and how to communicate across different spectrums. I’ve always been an advocate. Now I get to do it on a much larger scale. Instead of just one police district or one university, I’m helping an entire region.

How would you describe the landscape of affordable housing today? Affordable housing has a reputation of being transactional. The question we should ask is, “Does it truly fulfill the mission of why we need affordable housing in the first place? Is it truly about building, creating, shaping, and facilitating better communities?”

What do you mean by “transactional”? One of the things I ask people is, “What challenges do you see in the community-development world or process?” Consistently, I’m told that communities believe that when groups come to them, it’s all transactional, meaning it’s not about relationship-building. They see it as being all about the bottom line or dollars and cents, versus truly caring about trying to make people’s lives better. I know what it’s like to feel like a transaction, being an African-American male who grew up in St. Louis. I’ve not always been perceived as a person who brings value because of someone’s perceptions about me. I understand what it’s like to be looked at as a transaction, and it’s not a good thing.

How do you go about doing work that is genuine and helpful? It’s important to build long-term relationships where you have an emotional and psychological investment in the lives of other people. When that happens, not only does money come along, legitimate partnerships and legitimate relationships can be formed that can truly cause communities—and our region—to be changed for the better. The hope is that Rise will go into a community not like we’re the experts but like we’re one of the participants who want to help and invite people in that community to sit down at a table and talk to us, versus going in and telling them what we know and what we’re going to do.

What are some of the obstacles to solving affordable-housing problems that many people don’t necessarily know or consider? It may seem peripheral, but making sure people have access to things as simple as the internet in their units. Another thing most people don’t understand is how many of our residents are impacted in a negative way by mental health challenges and concerns.

So when you talk about affordable housing, you’re not just thinking about the buildings and the cost of rent. For me, it’s about how we have comprehensive wraparound services that not only address housing but also address the other things. Housing is just one of the things. You can build housing, but that doesn’t automatically fix a neighborhood or community. You have to have transportation. You have to have jobs. You have to have access to food. My big-picture plan is to help Rise address as many of those things as possible in an effective, comprehensive manner. The goal is to be more than just a housing developer but instead a neighborhood advocate and stabilizer.