Efforts to stabilize communities often focus on what we can build: affordable housing, small businesses, childcare, and access to credit. These investments are essential, but they tell only half the story.
Across Atlanta’s historically disinvested neighborhoods, wealth is not only scarce — it is actively being stripped away through predatory lending and high-cost financial products. The highest interest rate we’ve witnessed here is a whopping 795% APR. Sky-high rates like these are designed to trap people in endless debt cycles, draining resources from local communities.
If we focus only on neighborhood investments without addressing wealth-stripping, we risk pouring resources into communities faster than they can retain them. Stability requires both: building wealth and protecting it.
This dual approach is at the core of our work. As a national community development financial institution that lends, develops real estate, and advocates for consumer protections, Self-Help’s mission is creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for all.
Since opening our West End branch in 2024, we’ve welcomed more than 1,000 new members and deployed over $40 million in local lending to affordable housing developments, community projects, and everyday families. At the same time, we’ve partnered with more than 30 local organizations to provide financial education to over 700 residents, helping Atlantans navigate credit and avoid predatory products.
We are also expanding access to homeownership: Our Racial Wealth Gap Initiative supports first-time and first-generation homebuyers with affordable, low-down-payment mortgages. We help connect homebuyers with down payment assistance through partnerships with Atlanta Housing, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, and — as of early 2026 — Invest Atlanta. Together, these efforts are helping more families overcome one of the biggest barriers to owning a home.
We are proud to join ANDP and Star-C in Saporta Report’s Stable Communities column and contribute to this important conversation. Because thriving communities depend not only on what we build — but on what we protect. As we celebrate Financial Wellness Month this April, we invite others to engage with us at Self-Help to move this work forward.
This is sponsored content.
