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Thousands of Related Affordable residents access first-time credit scores, student loans, and mortgages through Esusu partnership
Background
Related Affordable is one of the largest private owners and operators of affordable housing in the country, with over 50,000 units. When they began looking for ways to enhance services and programming for affordable housing residents, they knew they needed to find a solution that was scalable and could equitably serve renters, regardless of their zip code.
“Nationally, we have one of the largest affordable housing practices in the private sector, which comes with great responsibility,” explained Jeff Brodsky, Vice Chairman of Related Companies. “Though the industry is highly regulated, there has been a lot of focus on how we can innovate inside of that space.”
Challenge
Not every affordable housing resident needs the same assistance to become more financially stable. Someone who lives in New York City, an area with accessible public transportation, may not find more stability in getting access to a car. For someone in Milwaukee, that can be the key to finding a more lucrative job.
However, one thing that was identified as a major need was better access to the financial systems that enable wealth building.
“Related Affordable’s rental units cover well over a hundred thousand people, but we’ve always struggled to be aligned with a partner who could scale delivery of services to people that really had a measurable impact,” said Brodsky. “These residents have seen financial systems that don’t work for them. We wanted to provide a solution to this with whatever we brought into our properties.”
Increasing financial literacy was the goal of the Related Affordable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization committed to enriching the lives of affordable housing residents and breaking the generational cycle of poverty. It supports organizations that make positive impacts in education, food and financial security, and workforce development by working directly with the residents to determine what services will benefit them most.
Solution
Related Affordable and Esusu partnered for the first time in late 2020 to work on solving these challenges. After rolling out rent reporting to a large portion of the portfolio, there was already a clear impact.
By November 2021, Esusu was expanded to Related Affordable’s entire portfolio and helped over 2,000 previously “credit invisible” renters establish credit for the first time.
“There are 45 million Americans without credit today,” said Brodsky. “Once we started to see our ESG reporting come back from Esusu, it was clear the effects rent reporting could have on the portion of the US population that are renters, particularly low-income renters.”
Less than 18 months after rolling out Esusu to the full Related Affordable portfolio, 10,000+ credit scores have been established, and the average increase in a resident’s credit score is 28 points.
Results
75%
of enrolled residents have
improved their credit scores
10,000+
new credit scores
established
102,000+
first-time credit scores
were established
28pts
average increase
in credit score
~400
residents have
accessed rent relief
11,000+
residents were approved
for credit cards
2,600+
car loans
were granted
700+
student loans
were granted
~300
residents went from affordable
housing to accessing mortgages