Swannanoa Homeowner Receives New Home from Faith-Based Nonprofit After Helene

Gary Allison, a Swannanoa homeowner, received a new home from the faith-based nonprofit God’s Pit Crew on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. He had spent nine months with nowhere to call home, and the gift came months after Hurricane Helene. He and his father were given a fully furnished, two-bedroom, two-bathroom house.

God’s Pit Crew is a disaster response team based in Danville, Virginia, that helps disaster-stricken communities through long-term recovery. The Danville-based group arrived in North Carolina shortly after the storm to help with natural disaster recovery.

The storm wrecked Allison’s home, and he was able to save only a few photos from the walls. “I stayed with my brother for about three months and the last six months in a FEMA trailer,” Allison said.

Allison’s ordeal began during the storm itself. He stood for hours holding his father above water because police were unable to reach them. Jarrett Johnson, creative director for God’s Pit Crew, described the scene on the property where the new home now stands. “Gary’s father couldn’t stand, and the water started to rise to the point where his father was going under, standing in this very property that we’re standing,” Johnson said.

At the handover, Johnson said, “That’s what we got to see today, is Gary wheel his father back into his home.” A new home for a neighbor who had gone months without one is a picture of welcoming the stranger (Matthew 25:35).

Johnson said he expects the crew to continue its relief work in western North Carolina, and the group’s goal is to gift more than 30 families with new homes.

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