Coffee & Conversation: Housing

Hosted by A Place at the Table and City of Raleigh Community Engagement Department, this month’s discussion will be centered around housing! Join us at A Place at the Table on February 13th at 9am for what is promised to be a great conversation! We will be joined by Amy Smith, Executive Director of The Women’s Center, Emila Sutton, Director of the City of Raleigh Housing and Community Development Department, and Eileen Rosa, Lead Agency Director for the Wake County Continuum of Care, to lead the conversation.

Amy Smith is the Executive Director of Women’s Center of Wake County, a Raleigh-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting single women experiencing homelessness through a Housing First, trauma-responsive model. Under her leadership, the organization has added Recuperative Respite care, expanding housing and case management services, and met the growing demand for services that help women stabilize and thrive. Amy works hard to foster a collaborative approach to community partnerships, relies on a data-driven strategy for improving outcomes, and offer shelter and support that centers dignity, safety, and equity for every woman who walks through the Center’s doors.

Emila Sutton is the Director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Raleigh, where she oversees a range of affordable housing and homelessness programs. With more than 20 years of experience across the housing continuum, her expertise includes affordable housing policy and finance, homeownership programs, and evidence-based homelessness response. Sutton designed and led Raleigh’s recent unsheltered response pilot, which successfully ended homelessness for 90% of individuals formerly living in an encampment. Previously, she served on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Emergency Housing Voucher leadership team and directed the Orange County (NC) Housing Department and Public Housing Agency. Her earlier work includes leading policy at the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and coordinating the Balance of State Continuum of Care at the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness. She holds degrees in Political Science, History, and Law.

Eileen Rosa serves as the Lead Agency Director for the Wake County Continuum of Care (CoC), guiding efforts to reduce and end homelessness. She brings over 12 years of experience in homeless services and programming, CoC governance, strategic planning, and system improvement. Before joining Wake County in 2025, Eileen worked in the District of Columbia CoC with the Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) and The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP), where she led coordinated entry implementation and managed major initiatives including the HUD Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP) and reductions in Veteran homelessness. Eileen holds an MSW from Catholic University and a BSW from Elizabethtown College.