Self-Help Credit Union opens first Georgia branch in West End

Leola Stewart, an 80-year-old resident of the Atrium at College Town senior high rise, said her life was transformed when she joined the Self-Help Credit Union in West End.

“I kept asking when they are going to open,” Stewart said at a recent event celebrating Self-Help and its local partners. “I was the first person to come here and join the credit union. They bought my loans. They helped me.”

Earlier this year, Stewart took out two loans with outlandish interest rates – one at 100 percent and the other at 490 percent – in order to help support herself and her son, who suffers from paralysis due to Guillain-Barre syndrome. Not only was she spending a third of her monthly social security check to repay the loans, but her outstanding balance was higher than the original loan. She had become a victim of predatory lending.

Self-Help helped Stewart refinance her loans and slash her monthly payments to less than a fourth of what she had been paying – saving her almost $300 a month.

That is just one example of what Self-Help Credit Union has been doing for more than four decades. The Center for Community Self-Help was founded in Durham, N.C., by Bonnie Wright and Martin Eakes, who is still CEO of the family of nonprofits dedicated to lifting up communities by providing access to capital.

The credit union, launched in 1983, has more than $1.7 billion in assets, serving more than 89,000 members in 39 branches in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and now Georgia. Since its inception, the Center for Community Self-Help and its affiliates have provided more than $11 billion in financing to more than 164,000 borrowers, helping them buy homes, become entrepreneurs, grow businesses and strengthen community.

“This is our first branch in Atlanta, but it will not be our last,” said Randy Chambers, president of Self-Help Credit Union, at the Oct. 17 event. 

Chambers said it was particularly meaningful for the branch to be located at the corner of Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, streets named after two civil rights legends, and to be in a “place where the civil rights movement really got traction.” But the wealth gap between whites and Blacks is 10 to one, and economic inequalities continue to impact lower-income communities.

“Atlanta challenges us,” said Chambers, who said communities are built around churches, businesses, families, governments and schools. “I also believe that a community cannot be healthy and thrive without a financial institution.”

Council member Jason Dozier welcomed Self-Help to his district by saying: “This moment marks a significant milestone for this community.”

Dozier said the credit union will provide resources, financial tools and opportunities to the community and the entire city.

“This building used to be a Wells Fargo,” Dozier said. “There’s some poetry to this with Wells Fargo pulling out and Self-Help coming in.”

Actually, Self-Help executives applauded Wells Fargo for selling the property to them.

“Wells Fargo could have sold it to someone else” and made more money, said Mandy Eidson, director of business development and community engagement for Self-Help in Atlanta. The bank decided to close the branch after merging with another institution and having two locations within close proximity.

“In my opinion, they sold it to Self-Help ultimately to uplift the community,” said Yvette Humphries, Self-Help’s regional manager in Atlanta. “The Self-Help mission is so strong, and that’s what resonates with people.”

In fact, one of the former Wells Fargo tellers at that branch is now working with the credit union, providing continuity in the community.

Anyone can become a member of the Center for Community Self-Help (at a one-time cost of $5) and receive access to all the products the credit union offers.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens welcomed Self-Help, saying the credit union was becoming part of the Atlanta ecosystem to create diverse and inclusive communities.

“This corner is now brighter,” Dickens said of Self-Help’s location and its commitment to empower communities. “They can help make Atlanta a city of opportunity for all.”

The impact of Self-Help entering the Georgia market extends far beyond having a credit union branch. Self-Help is part of a family of nonprofits that’s been changing the economic landscape for decades. In total, the Self-Help family has over $4.6 billion in assets and more than 180,000 members.

It also started the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan policy and research think-tank dedicated to protecting consumers throughout the country from abusive financial practices. It has helped strengthen predatory lending laws in multiple states as well as working to pass federal legislation.

And now Self-Help is focusing its efforts on reducing the impacts of climate change in “low-wealth” communities.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $6.97 billion grant from the National Clean Investment Fund to Self-Help, Calvert Impact and the Community Preservation Corp. to ensure that historically underserved communities can benefit from the nation’s transition to cleaner energy – making sure there’s equitable delivery and investment of clean energy technologies (such as solar) in an effort to reduce carbon pollution.

The seeds Self-Help has sown for decades are now being planted in Georgia.

And Leola Stewart, who gets around in an electric wheelchair, couldn’t be happier to live within a few blocks from the first Self-Help branch in Georgia. She has become a goodwill ambassador for Self-Help in the community.

“I’ve been trying to send people down here,” Stewart said. “It’s a wonderful place.”