My issue with RPi packages isn't compiling the binaries. Rather, it's creating the .deb. The deb is built with dpkg-makepackage, which itself attempts to configure the project before building. Since moving the project from plain makefiles to autotools, dpkg-makepackage won't play nice with the cross compiling arguments that yields arm binaries.
The crux of the issue is I don't have enough expertize with autotools, nor do I have the time to bang my head against it to figure it out right now. If someone wants to take on this and submit a patch and/or instructions, I'll put out RPi builds for 0.96.5. Otherwise, it's gonna have to wait.
Many hours later and I now know a lot more about debian packaging and dpkg-buildpackage than I ever wanted to.
I have something that compiles with light changes to make_deb_package.py and the debian/rules. Autotools config untouched.
I'm assuming you're not planning on submitting this to the Raspbian/Debian repo?
I set the bar at getting it working, rather the rabbit hole of debian multiarch packaging requirements!