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Self-Help plans to buy foreclosed homes
(CUNA News Now - May 8, 2008)
A community development organization affiliated with Self-Help CU in Durham, N.C., is working to stabilize a troubled Charlotte neighborhood, Peachtree Hills, by purchasing, improving, and re-selling its foreclosed homes.
New Credit Union open to all in Wilson
(The Wilson Times - April 26, 2008 - Laura Keeter)
If you live in Wilson County, work in Wilson County, or go to church or school in Wilson County, you are qualified to be a member of the Wilson Community Credit Union, a division of Self Help Credit Union.
Self-Help receives award for Innovative Financing
April 25, 2008
Self-Help, along with three other lenders, was honored by Triangle Commercial Real Estate Women with their 10th Annual Champion Award for "Most Innovative Financing Program."
Self-Help was recognized for its role in financing Empire Properties' Heilig-Levine historic rehabilitation in downtown Raleigh. The rehabilitation of the 50,000 square-foot space is an important contribution to both historic preservation and the revitalization of downtown Raleigh. The project included North Carolina's first LEED certified tenant up fit for Cherokee Investment Partners. Other tenants include Central Parking System, Sellars Beauty Salon, Riviera, a Mediterranean restaurant and lounge; and North Carolina State University College of Design’s downtown studio.
Self-Help provided a $7.95 million
loan through its New Markets Tax Credit program that enabled the developers to
succeed in this project. Other funding partners who helped this project succeed
include Suntrust, Paragon Bank, Magnet Bank and CityScape Capital.
It matters how your money is used when it’s not in your hands
(Sonoma Valley Sun - April 24, 2008 - Joan Huguenard)
Long-time Self-Help depositor writes article about Self-Help:
When you put money in a bank, you expect to write checks or withdraw your money later. Most people never think about what happens to that money in the meantime, and possibly assume it’s just sitting in a vault there on the premises.
An idea to help residents 'hang on'
(The Charlotte Observer - April 6, 2008 - Julia Oliver)
A nonprofit group wants to buy as many as 25 vacant houses to help build homeownership in Peachtree Hills, a Charlotte neighborhood that is one of the worst-hit by the foreclosure crisis.
Affordable Housing internship program launched.
(Design Influence - Spring 2008)
Architecture students Imran Aukhil and Wendy Legerton had the experience of a lifetime during the summer of 2007. They worked as architecture interns addressing affordable housing issues at Self-Help, a nationally recognized Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in Durham, N.C.
Read More (PDF)
Hand-up, not Handout: Thad Moore (’74) leads a humanitarian organization that helps those in need help themselves.
(Wake Forest Magazine - March, 2008 - Kim McGrath)
Ever wonder what it’s like to get up in the morning and know that your job will be to provide a home to a single mom, create jobs by providing financial support to a local small business venture, or revitalize a downtown community? Thad Moore (’74) can tell you. He’s been doing it for more than 25 years with the Center for Community Self-Help in Durham, NC.
Read More (PDF)
City houses on schedule
(Goldsboro News-Argus - February, 2008 - Anessa Myers)
Three of the homes being constructed as part of a downtown revitalization effort in the 400 block of South John Street are getting closer to being ready for families, city officials say.
The houses aren't completed yet, but they should be by the first week in June, Downtown Goldsboro Develop-ment Director Julie Thompson said.
And the city and Self-Help are trying to make the financial stress of buying a home a little easier by providing incentives such as payments as low as $575 a month and available down payment assistance up to $35,000.
Self-Help & Partners Receive Awards for Historic Renovation and Economic Development Plan
Self-Help and several partners were presented with two awards at the recent North Carolina Main Street 2008 Conference. The conference is organized each year by the Department of Commerce's Division of Community Assistance, which runs the NC Main Street Center.
An "Award of Merit" for "Best Historic Rehabilitation Project" was presented to Self-Help and Dunn & Dalton Architects for the Historic People's Bank Building in downtown Rocky Mount. The People's Bank Building was constructed in 1918 in Beaux Arts style as the home of the Bank of Rocky Mount. It served the community for more than 60 years, but by the 1990s had been abandoned for several years. Self-Help purchased the bank in 1999, and began its renovation in 2005. It is currently home to the Edgecombe Community College Workforce Development and Training Program, the Golden Leaf Foundation and several small nonprofits.
An "Award of Merit" for "Best Economic Development Incentive Plan" was given to Self-Help, Preservation NC, the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corporation, and the City of Goldsboro for the Comprehensive Historic Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. The plan outlines a variety of strategies to revitalize the neighborhoods surrounding downtown, in order to improve the housing stock through new construction and historic preservation, meet the community's housing needs, increase the tax base, and attract further investment. In addition to contributing to the plan's development, Self-Help is now helping implement it by building affordable housing on vacant lots in the heart of Goldsboro's historic district.
Stanford Social Innovation Review Highlights Self-Help:
Cultivate your Ecosystem
(Stanford Social Innovation Review - Winter 2008 - Paul N. Bloom and Gregory Dees)
Social entrepreneurs not only must understand the broad environment in which they work, but also must shape those environments to support their goals, when feasible. Borrowing insights from the field of ecology, the authors offer an ecosystems framework to help social entrepreneurs create long-lasting and significant social change.
Self-Help Featured in Politico.com Story:
Subprime Guru Drives Debate
(Politico.com - January 16, 2008 - Victoria McGrane)
DURHAM, N.C. — The main intellectual engine driving Democratic responses to the housing crisis isn’t headquartered in a flashy Washington think tank or K Street suite, but rather in a restored cream-and-brick building on Durham’s idle West Main Street...
N.C. Community Development Initiative receives
$10 million investment from State Farm Insurance
KANNAPOLIS — Self-Help partner, The N.C. Community Development Initiative, received a historic $10 million investment today from State Farm Insurance Company, an influx of money that will boost the group’s already-growing capacity to fund affordable-housing developments and other programs for low-income residents throughout North Carolina.
Read More (PDF)
Independent Weekly Honors El Futuro, Self-Help Borrower, with Citizen Award
Honoring those whose acts of conscience and sacrifice benefit our community.
El Futuro: Helping to heal minds, building confianza with Latinos
(The Independent Weekly - November 21, 2007 - Matt Saladaña)
As a "white boy from Arkansas" who attended high school in the late '80s and early '90s, Luke Smith heard some then-unconventional wisdom from his father: "You're going to learn that, boy, because everybody's going to be speaking it one day."
Smith's father was referring to Spanish, the language—and accompanying culture—his son would later embrace as executive director of El Futuro, a nonprofit mental health center dedicated to treating the state's underserved, and largely uninsured, Latino population. In 2004, Smith founded the center, based in Carrboro, to pool the efforts of therapists and psychiatrists who were versed in the language and culture of area Latinos, many of whom had never sought treatment for serious addictions and psychiatric illnesses.
Democratic Capitalism
Amy Domini Cites Self-Help in ODE Magazine
(Ode Magazine - December, 2007 - Amy Domini)
Last year, when Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize, millions of people around the world learned of the miracles that banks serving the poor could deliver. It was a well-deserved honour for Yunus, and a great reminder of what microloans and other slight tweaks to “business as usual” can mean to hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised people.
Partnership to bring affordable
housing -- and new families -- to Goldsboro.
Goldsboro will unveil John Street project
(Goldsboro News-Argus - November 22, 2007)
Three families might soon be able to move into new homes on John Street -- as part of the city's downtown development project.
The Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. joined with Preservation North Carolina, the city of Goldsboro and Self-Help to bring affordable housing -- and new families -- to Goldsboro.
City officials will break ground at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 29 on the first of three homes at 400, 404 and 406 S. John St., which will be priced from $92,000 to $104,000.
DGDC Director Julie Thompson said she is excited to get the hammers moving.
Read MoreThese Tough Lending Laws Could Travel
North Carolina's progressive protection laws for borrowers may become a nationwide model
(BusinessWeek - November 2, 2007 - Anessa Myers)North Carolina has not had the same subprime grief as Nevada or Colorado. Nor is it known for the high-octane activism of California or New York. Yet as Washington lawmakers hash out how to deal with millions of potential foreclosures, North Carolina's predatory-lending laws are shaping the debate.
Read More
Real-estate Developer Blends Energy-efficiency, Affordability
(Daily Tar Heel - October 30, 2007 - Harrison Jobe, Staff Writer)
DURHAM - Self-Help, a community development lender and real-estate developer in low-income markets, celebrated the groundbreaking of a new energy-efficient home Monday on Kent Street.
The construction of the new home is based on a design developed by five N.C. State University students who won the 2007 N.C. Sustainable Building Design Competition.
The competition is in its 10th year, said Tracy Dixon, project manager for Advanced Energy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit providing innovative solutions to energy issues.
Self-Help receives 2007 L. Vincent Lowe, Jr. Business Award for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings Throughout North Carolina
October, 2007
The award recognized Self-Help's history of outstanding rehabilitation of historic buildings throughout North Carolina. The Lowe award is North Carolina's highest preservation award in recognition of a business showing vision and creativity in promoting the protection of the state's architectural resources.
Since 1992, Self-Help has renovated ten historic buildings totaling over 250,000 square feet; the vast majority of this space is leased to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and government offices. Cities in which Self-Help has rehabilitated historic buildings are: Asheville, Charlotte, Sanford, Durham, Rocky Mount, Greenville, Wilson, Fayetteville, and Wilmington.
Over the next year, the real estate team plans to begin rehabilitation of the historic Piedmont Buggy Factory (Bearskin Mill) in Monroe, NC, the Old U.S. Post Office in Rocky Mount , NC and to build three new single-family homes in a nationally and locally registered historic district in Goldsboro.
Self-Help has made $60 million in loans to significant projects in North Carolina such as the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham, Revolution Mills in Greensboro and the Heilig-Levine furniture store rehabilitation in Raleigh. elf-Help also supports the adaptive re-use of historic buildings through its new markets tax credit lending.
The Lowe Award was presented at Preservation North Carolina's annual conference on October 25 -27 at the State Capitol.
Video: Martin Eakes on Subprime Lending, Social Justice, and Self Help
Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Self-Help and the Center for Community Capital to Conduct Research on CDFIs and Home Mortgage Finance
Self-Help and the Center for Community Capital have been selected to participate in The CDFI Fund’s Policy Research Initiative. The two organizations working together, received a grant to conduct research about the role CDFIs play in home mortgage finance. The study will investigate the market that CDFIs serve with mortgage financing. Additionally, the study will compare the mortgage financing done by CDFIs to that done by other types of lenders including prime and subprime in terms of who is served and how the loans perform over time. The research will be completed in June 2008.
Martin Eakes, Self-Help CEO, Provides
A look from N.C. at the Debt Crisis
(The News & Observer - September 4, 2007 - , Staff Writer)
Martin Eakes has long been a champion of the little guy.
Eakes, co-founder and chief executive of Self-Help, the nonprofit community lender in Durham, has pushed to provide financing for people with low income so that they might get a slice of the American dream. And he has worked to protect them. He was one of the most vocal advocates in the 1990s of efforts to thwart predatory lenders in this state.
New Book FORCES FOR GOOD Explores What Makes Great Nonprofits Great
Self-Help was identified as one of the 12 highest-impact nonprofits in a survey of nearly 3,000 nonprofit CEOs and 60 in-depth interviews. The new book, FORCES FOR GOOD: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, features the research and findings of long-time nonprofit consultants Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant. The authors uncovered six powerful practices used by these high-impact nonprofits. The book, published by Jossey-Bass, was released on October 26, 2007.
Learn more at: www.forcesforgood.net
Purchase the book at your local retailer or at: www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, or http://800ceoread.com
Self-Help Charter School Borrower in the News
(The News & Observer - August 26, 2007 - , Staff Writer)Families' commitment makes Selma charter school hum
Parent involvement is a prerequisite at Johnston County's first charter school
SELMA - Tabatha Koziarz has faced bigger back-to-school preoccupations lately than whether her third-grade daughter's bookbag is packed on day one.
At Neuse Charter School, which opens Monday with grades K through 5 in Selma, families are required to volunteer for the school at least four hours a month. Many parents -- and children -- have already surpassed that minimum. Koziarz, for instance, has put in 17 hours some days this month.
Ford Publication Features Self-Help Secondary Market program
The Ford Foundation's 2007 report on Building Financial Assets included an informative article on the impact of Self-Help's Secondary Market program in expanding the availability of non-traditional home loans made by conventional lenders. The program is a partnership between lenders, the Ford Foundation, Fannie Mae, and Self-Help. Read More
Sisters Win National Award
(Fayetteville Observer - April 25, 2007 - Melissa Willett)
Two
Lumberton sisters were named National Small Business Persons of the
Year on Tuesday during the Small Business Administration’s conference
in Washington.
SBA Honors Nation's Top Entrepreneurs
Inc.com - Angus LotenTwo American Indian sisters who launched a homegrown health-care business in Lumberton, N.C., were named national Small Business Persons of the Year at a gala awards ceremony on Tuesday in Washington.
Read More
Credit Union Grand Opening Sends a Positive Signal
Self-Help marked a deepening of its commitment to rural economic development, and a firm investment in an economically distressed region of North Carolina, with the recent grand opening of the new Scotland Community Credit Union.
The grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony brought officials of the City of Laurinburg and Scotland County together with local business owners, area residents, and credit union members on March 29, 2007. Now centrally located in the business and financial district of downtown Laurinburg, the former private home turned signature branch office promises to raise the visibility of this long-running credit union. Scotland Community Credit Union was chartered in 1964. Today, SCCU serves approximately 3200 area residents including employees of one of the county’s largest textile factories. This ethnically diverse region of southern North Carolina is home to Native Americans, African-Americans, Scottish/Irish descendents, and a growing population of Latino immigrants. Self-Help’s commercial real estate team utilized local architects and builders to restore and remodel the 3,000 sq. ft. 1920s era building, and the surrounding grounds. Scotland Community Credit Union merged with Self-Help Credit Union in January 2005.
Mother leads by example: Home Loan Borrower Featured in Fayetteville Observer
(Fayetteville Observer - January 13, 20907)By Jennifer Plotnick, Staff writer
Liza Denis gets up early each morning. While her children are waking up, she drives a school bus of special needs children to school.
Back home, she helps her four children finish getting ready for the day.
Once they’re in day care and school, Denis straps on a backpack and heads to Fayetteville Technical Community College for two courses.
After that, it’s back to her afternoon bus route.
Denis tries to squeeze in a little studying before her children get home.
Once they arrive, the most important aspect of the day begins: spending quality time with them and helping them with homework.
Read MoreSelf-Help Opens New Oakland, CA Office
In September 2006, Self-Help opened an office in Oakland CA to complement its presence in North Carolina and Washington DC. The California office will focus on developing and deploying new and creative financial strategies and products to serve the needs of low income individuals and families. We will support existing economic development efforts and organizations by increasing access to, and reducing the cost of, capital. We will leverage the extensive experience and success of our national secondary market mortgage product for single family home ownership, creating new products and services that can increase availability of capital for more facets of the economic development marketplace. As with our other offices, we will apply a combination of economic development activity and policy work in support of wealth creation and economic opportunity. To do this, we look forward to collaborating with other organizations providing direct lending services in the region, as well with our colleagues in the California office of the Center for Responsible Lending. For more information about our activities in California, please email us for more information or call 510-379-5540.
Self-Help Purchases Historic Downtown Rocky Mount Post Office
The Rocky Mount Telegram profiled this example of Self-Help's commitment to downtown revitalization and the preservation of historic buildings. (Read the full article)Cape Fear Credit Union
Self-Help Merges With A Third Full Service Credit UnionOn July 1, 2006, Cape Fear Credit Union merged with Self-Help Credit Union. Cape Fear Credit Union is based in Wilmington, North Carolina, serves approximately 3,000 members throughout eastern North Carolina’s Brunswick and New Hanover counties, and was chartered in 1979. (learn more about Cape Fear Credit Union)
Martin Eakes Receives 2005 “Tar Heel of the Year” Honor
Each year, the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper taps one North Carolinian to profile as its “Tar Heel of the Year.” For 2005, that recognition goes to North Carolina native and Self-Help founder and CEO, Martin Eakes.Read the full text of the Sunday, December 18, 2005 front page article.