Brunswick Housing Opportunities goal: Affordable housing.

Oct. 26--After more than a year of meetings on affordable work force housing in Brunswick County, a new venture has begun to make sure action is taken to help the average worker afford a home.

Brunswick Housing Opportunities is a new organization aimed at creating policy changes, building affordable housing and educating homebuyers.

The organization, which is awaiting nonprofit status approval, was started last month by Resea Willis, former program director of Countywide Community Development Corp.

At Countywide, she led the housing summits. She also leads a new coalition of Brunswick County residents, homebuilders and others involved in the housing industry that meets monthly to explore ways to help more of the county's workers afford their own homes.

Willis said the idea for a nonprofit focusing solely on the issue came out of the coalition meetings where members said there needed to be a driving force to translate their ideas into action.

"We knew that we needed a nonprofit development arm, and there was not one in the county, and we knew that we needed to concentrate solely on this new initiative," Willis said.

"The more that we got into the initiative, the more it was necessary to have someone or another organization to concentrate on nothing but housing," she said.