Written By Megin Potter | Photos Provided
[From the 2025 Fall Magazine]
Serendipity graced Sharon Horton’s life when she became the Northern Saratoga, Warren, and Washington Counties Habitat for Humanity’s new Executive Director in June.
“It’s interesting how life comes full circle sometimes,” she said. “There’s a synchronicity to how paths cross in our lives.”
In 2012, while volunteering as the Fulton County Board Secretary, Sharon worked with Habitat for Humanity and was reminded of the housing struggle she had faced five years earlier as a single mother of three children, trying to find safe, affordable housing while balancing the demands of parenthood and career. Luckily, she had allies who offered emotional and practical support.
“Being able to provide a decent, safe place for my children to live was transformative for me. It seems like such a simple thing, but gaining stability came with such a feeling of empowerment for me,” she said. “Now, I can look back on that experience and see how it changed my life.”
An Affordable Housing Ally
Sharon paid it forward, supporting others through years of work with the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. As an advocate for physical and mental health, Sharon worked next to her housing partners in the legislative space, but it’s only recently that she’s witnessed how the current housing crisis has eroded the market and how difficult it is for so many to find access to affordable housing in this region.
It's an ‘AH-HA’ moment, she said. “How do people live?” she wondered at first. Now she asks, “How does Habitat work in that space and be a partner to create affordable housing? Where do we find affordable property?”
When property values skyrocket and a house sells at an inflated rate, it affects the value of all the properties in the vicinity, making it impossible for a hardworking local family earning an average income to afford a home that isn’t in desperate need of repairs, plagued by mold, or infested with rodents.
“This should be the standard – being able to live in a decent home,” said Sharon. “Putting families in safe, stable homes provides powerful and profound improvements to their health, financial success, and community. A stable environment fosters children’s academic success, emotional resilience, and creates greater opportunities for their future by showing them what they can achieve. It breaks that cycle of generational poverty.”
Living the Dream
This year, Habitat for Humanity is expecting to complete a project in Warrensburg with hopes to open the door to a deserving family by end of year, and has plans to build two homes in Hudson Falls in 2026. “Community partners like the Saratoga Showcase of Homes are why we can continue to do what we do. Without them, we can’t survive,” said Sharon. “It’s amazing to see the commitment and passion Showcase leaders have for those they support.”
In addition to helping give others a piece of the American dream, Sharon is a Reiki Master and meditator, who begins every day with gratitude. She is a proud “Nona” to her three grandchildren, loves to travel, and has been working to finish her Masters of Business Administration degree. After living a furlong from Sacandaga Lake as a third time homeowner for the past 20 years, Sharon is excited to plant some roots locally in Gansevoort. Here, in our foothills of the Adirondacks, she feels grounded and connected to the beauty of the nature that surrounds us. One day, she may climb a mountain, the next, paddle a lake. “Every day is a new adventure. I try to live life to the fullest every day,” she said.