U.S. Bank invests $4.6M to help make more affordable housing available in Charlotte

U.S. Bank will invest nearly $4.6 million in various Charlotte housing efforts, including funds to help buy and preserve properties for affordable home ownership.

That includes $3.3 million in tax credits for Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region to buy and fix up 28 homes to be sold at affordable prices, and $250,000 for Habitat’s critical home repair program.

The bank will also give $1 million to the LISC Charlotte, a community development nonprofit that has advised city leaders on affordable housing deals and manages the private affordable housing fund that works in tandem with the city’s housing trust fund.

Habitat Charlotte Region President and CEO Laura Belcher said the money will help maintain a supply of affordable homes that people with lower and moderate incomes can own and keep in their families.

“We know that home ownership is the biggest tool to change and improve generational wealth and we know there’s a racial disparity in ownership,” she said. “Having good, intentional efforts around affordable home ownership is really critical at this time.”

As moderately priced homes are gobbled up by investors and razed, flipped or rented, the options for many potential buyers are slim.

Habitat pursued similar purchases amid the recession when real estate investors were hungry to acquire homes in Charlotte and all over the country, Belcher said. The new funding will allow them to increase the scale.

Homes will be sold to households earning up to 80% of the area’s median income — about $67,000 for a family of four — who work through the Habitat programs, and to income-qualified buyers on the open market, she said.

Homes would be sold in the $125,000 to $200,000 range where “there’s a woeful lack of kind of houses in that price point,” Belcher said.

Through the funding for the repair program, Belcher expects to help nearly 200 households, many of them seniors, to do roofing, plumbing and electrical and other repair work so they can stay in their homes.

‘A path to creating wealth’

The U.S. Bank investment is notable because many previous million-dollar donations from area banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and BB&T/SunTrust (now Truist Bank) have largely focused on building or preserving affordable apartments.

There’s a significant need for more affordable apartments, as a recent report from Mecklenburg County found a more than 23,000-unit deficit for households at 30% of the area median income or below.

But also crucial is an emphasis on home ownership to encourage generational wealth, said Dee O’Dell, a regional executive for U.S. Bank who also co-chaired the city’s task force on upward mobility.

“As we are able to help people have affordable home ownership, it puts them on a path to creating wealth and stability in their family,” he said.

That includes a related goal of closing the wealth gap between Black and white Americans, O’Dell said.

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank is expanding its presence in Charlotte, where it opened its first retail branch last year.

This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 3:17 PM.