In 2023, Southern Bancorp, a Community Development Financial Institution in the USA, made the decision to build an expanded mortgage division to help deliver the opportunity of homeownership to more underserved people and places across their footprint and beyond.
“The unfortunate truth about poverty cycles in America is that the majority of people who grow up impoverished will never make it out,” state Southern Bancorp. Studies show that those who can break these cycles, however, do so by establishing some sort of net worth, such as owning a home. An even harder truth is that Black and Hispanic households face a larger barrier to entry than their white counterparts, which is only exacerbated by this “post-pandemic” economy.
Affordable homeownership is one of the three main verticals from Southern Bancorp which believes they can make lasting, meaningful impacts for families. In 2023 they made the bold decision to build an expanded mortgage division to help deliver the opportunity of homeownership to more underserved people and places across their footprint and beyond.
Darrin Williams, CEO, Southern Bancorp, Inc. :
“The expansion of our mortgage business, with a particular focus on reaching Black and Hispanic prospective homebuyers, aligns with our efforts to help close an approximate 30-point homeownership gap these minority households face when compared to white households. Homeownership is one of the most important ways for families to build generational wealth. By expanding our reach and impact in this field, we can further those efforts and help even more families realize the American Dream.”
Opening these doors and realizing these goals is a purposefully diverse lending team led by a woman of colour and a group of originators comprised predominantly of people of colour, who have throughout their careers originated more than 85% of their mortgage portfolios to minority families.
Breaking the barriers of inequity
With the current interest rate climate in America, many have asked them “why now” as it relates to this mortgage expansion. For Southern Bancorp, the answer is clear – because of the state the economy is in, it is harder to own a home than perhaps ever before, so they’re committing more of their work to be a remedy and a bridge, breaking through as many of these barriers of inequity as they can.
This expansion represents their commitment to doing even more of this life-changing work than they already do. The ultimate goal is to create more homeowners and thus break more cycles of poverty within minority and marginalised communities throughout the South.
This expanded mortgage division tracks with both Southern Bancorp’s 10-Year Plan for Economic Opportunity, which is to assist at least 20,000 people in attaining and/or sustaining affordable housing, and its immediate five-year growth plan, which is to essentially double their impact for under-resourced communities over the next half-decade.
