Healing Transitions breaks ground on Raleigh women's recovery housing, launches $14M campaign

Healing Transitions held a ceremonial groundbreaking on March 6, 2026, at its Women’s Campus on Glen Royal Road in Raleigh and announced a campaign to build recovery-oriented housing that the organization’s campaign page lists at $14 million. The project will more than double the campus’ capacity from 88 beds to 210 beds and add program and family spaces aimed at helping women sustain recovery.

The campaign sits alongside a patchwork of committed public and foundation funding. The City of Raleigh approved $2.2 million in Affordable Housing Bond funds for the Forward Together community on November 4, 2025, and the SECU Foundation has approved a $500,000 capital grant and a $1 million challenge grant in 2026 to support renovation, expansion, and transitional housing for program graduates. Other campaign materials have referenced a $16.75 million capital target and reported that the effort had reached 93 percent of that total; Healing Transitions’ campaign site and the differing figures have not reconciled in public materials.

Program leaders say the expansion pairs housing with education and employment supports. SECU Foundation materials and Healing Transitions campaign copy describe plans to triple education space and build a Career and Community Center with a computer lab and classrooms for life skills, financial and health education. The site plan credited to HH Architecture shows shared wellness spaces including yoga and meditation rooms, children’s play areas, and community gathering spaces intended to keep mothers connected to services, transit, grocery stores, pharmacies, and nearby schools.

Healing Transitions operates separate men’s and women’s campuses in Raleigh - the men’s campus on Goode Street and the women’s campus on Glen Royal Road - and provides long-term recovery programs, overnight shelter, non-medical detox, and family services. The organization serves people from 27 counties across North Carolina and averages more than 300 people each night across both campuses, according to foundation and organizational materials.

Alumnae and staff emphasized the peer-driven model that underpins the expansion. Gina Martin, who entered Healing Transitions through detox in 2009 and now works as maintenance coordinator at the Women’s Campus, said, "For some reason, Healing Transitions was the trick," and added, "So, I can help them with patience and letting them know it will be worth it. This is a hard thing to do, but in the end, it will be worth it." Justin Garrity, a Rapid Response Program Manager who grew up in Cary and now coordinates outreach to overdose survivors, is cited by the organization as part of the staff leading outreach and recovery work.

Executive Director Chris Budnick framed the project as part of two decades of local service, saying, "We celebrate this exciting moment in Healing Transitions’ 20-year history, and we look forward to serving the men and women in our community who will be able to pursue recovery as a result of this expansion." Campaign partners named by the organization include Wake County Government, the City of Raleigh, A.J. Fletcher Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the SECU Foundation.

Project leaders also describe 17 new affordable units specifically for women and mothers who complete recovery programs and are ready to rebuild their lives. Healing Transitions held a virtual groundbreaking event later in March that campaign materials identify as part of the final phase launch; public materials present both the March 6 in-person ceremony and a March 25 virtual event, and campaign staff have been asked to clarify whether those were separate ceremonies or part of a single launch sequence. Construction timing, final budget reconciliation, and updated fundraising totals will determine when new residents can move into the expanded Women’s Campus, but the expansion is positioned to increase Wake County’s capacity for housing-focused recovery and family-centered supports.