The housing market in the Triangle area is extremely competitive, and it can be hard to find an affordable home whether you’re looking in Chapel Hill, Durham or Raleigh. One organization aims to help people who are searching.
Dan Levine is the Director of Real Estate at the Durham-based non-profit Self Help Credit Union.
He said its overall mission is creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity.
“It’s a pretty broad mission statement, but a lot of that work dates back for decades and it includes things like helping people become homeowners, because it’s a big way that wealth is passed from generation to generation — creating opportunities for affordable rental housing and affordable home-ownership, creating opportunities for small businesses and nonprofits to rent space from us,” said Levine.
Levine said a critical part of Self Help’s operations is lending activities, primarily involving their non-profit credit union’s home loans, business loans and large-scale commercial loans.
“All those things tie back to trying to help people help themselves — that explains the somewhat unusual name of Self Help,” said Levine. “It’s really dating back to our roots and to an older movement in this country surrounding Self Help, meaning helping organizations and individuals and families advance their opportunities in their communities.”
Levine said Self Help is trying to tackle local housing issues directly by offering affordable housing opportunities outside of traditional public housing programs. To do this in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the organization also works with the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, which serves historically Black communities.
Although Levine said students are an important part of the local area, the historic Northside community is experiencing an unbalanced mix of residents and student renters.
“We’ve been working in partnership with the community members there and with the Jackson Center to try to create opportunities for stable, affordable housing and really to try to balance out a neighborhood that for a period of years, almost every property that went for sale was purchased by student rental investors.”
Levine said Self Help also works with other Chapel Hill advocacy organizations, including Empowerment Incorporated, Community Home Trust, Habitat for Humanity and CASA.
One of the more ambitious projects Self Help is involved with is the Homestead Road housing project.
Levine said this year, in partnership with other organizations, Self Help is hoping to break ground on a project located on vacant land on 2200 Homestead Road. They aim to create approximately 90 units of affordable housing.
The project will help sustain the financial health of the overall community since it allows for more permanent home ownership opportunities, Levine added.
“It’s a great location on land that isn’t being used, and it’s providing affordable housing and greenway connections and playgrounds and all the things to really integrate this community,” said Levine.
“Pretty much anyone you talk to is going to acknowledge that housing is expensive and getting more expensive. The challenge is how to use limited financial resources and limited time to make a dent in this big issue, but I think the local governments are really doing a lot on this issue.”
Levine said he is ultimately optimistic about the Chapel Hill and Carrboro area, and the Triangle in general, creating affordable housing solutions.
“I do really feel genuinely happy to be in a community where people care about the issue, acknowledge the issue and are looking to find creative ways to address it,” said Levine.
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