New London ― On any given day, Stacey Smith, the executive director of the nonprofit Housing Opportunities to Promote Equity, or H.O.P.E., Inc., fields more than a dozen calls from residents in dire need of affordable housing.

“My heart breaks with every call; some of these people are homeless and need a place to live,” she said Monday from what she described as “the tiniest office you’ve ever seen” at 187 Williams St. “And we can only build one or two new homes each year.”

Smith, a rental property owner and home builder who spent her career in the corporate sales and retail management worlds, took over leadership of the organization in June after Marilyn Graham, the group’s long-time executive director, retired after 34 years at the helm.

Smith’s interest in the group, which has built or renovated 45 homes in Norwich and New London for needy residents over the past 35 years, began during an open house in 2020 held to celebrate the completion of a new H.O.P.E. home on Belden Street.

“At the time, and this was during COVID, I was focusing on school and had no intention of taking a new job — unless something special came up,” Smith said. “During that event, I met the new homeowner and within 10 minutes I looked over at Marilyn and told my husband I wanted her job. I wanted to make other people’s faces look like that new homeowner’s.”

Like her predecessor, Smith, the group’s only employee, wears several hats: organizational booster, fundraiser and project manager. She is responsible for helping maintain the group’s four rental properties, including two set aside for “very low and low-income" tenants.

The group also oversees a specialized “Reynard” program for renters that sets aside a portion of their rents in anticipation of them becoming first-time homeowners, a group of people Smith said face particular challenges.

“Many of the individuals we help get into a home for the first time did not grow up in a house themselves,” she said. “They don’t have generational wealth or parents to teach them about appliance warranties or how to deal with water runoff. That’s the sort of information we can assist them with.”

Peter Springsteel, local architect and chairman of H.O.P.E.’s board of directors, said Smith’s work so far has exceeded his expectations.

“When Marilyn left, there was the worry about how we could we ever find someone to take care of this position, to fill in the blanks and take the reins,” he said. “Stacey is self-motivated and is exploring avenues we hadn’t considered.”

He said her past work experience, especially in the housing area, has proved invaluable.

“That was definitely something we saw in her resume and she’s done an excellent job,” Springsteel said.

The group, which builds new homes on property it buys and refurbishes existing homes, receives its funding through federal housing tax credits, specific municipal block grants and donations that cover operational expenses.

In an effort to raise the group’s profile — and donation levels — Smith recently introduced new Facebook and Instagram pages and information brochures with QR codes that link to a donation page.

But all these new outreach efforts come at a challenging time for the group.

“Just the cost of getting permission to build has skyrocketed — the building permit for our latest project was $8,000,” she said. “And we’re looking at shifting from buying and rehabilitating homes– which is just too expensive – to instead sub-dividing existing properties for use or just buying land to build new ones.”

In many ways, the group is a victim of its own success. Thanks to the 20 homes the group refurbished on Belden Street, property levels jumped in the neighborhood.

“So, we can’t afford to buy an existing home on that street now for re-use,” Smith said.

Smith is preparing for a groundbreaking event on Jan. 31 on Blackhall Street that will celebrate the first H.O.P.E. home to be built since she took over.

“I love this job even more now than I did when I started,” she said.

j.penney@theday.com