KeyBank® is putting $400,000 into NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. Why? To make housing accessible to Black communities — as they have been disproportionately left out of homeownership.
Sure, $400,000 is a modest sum these days. But it’s part of a bigger picture.
In recent years, KeyBank has contributed close to half a billion dollars to Greater Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania to bolster housing affordability and strengthen communities. And in total, KeyBank is investing $40 billion in communities where fair access to Pennsylvania homes is most critically needed.
“This grant is part of KeyBank’s commitment to invest $40 billion in the communities it serves.”
—KeyBank
So this grant is only part of KeyBank’s commitment to equitable access to homeownership for Pennsylvanians.
It’s About Committing to Racial Fairness
So, what exactly happens when KeyBank supports NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania? NeighborWorks can increase its financial assistance to aspiring homeowners in the places that both of these organizations serve.
The partnership helps people who live in Greater Pittsburgh, and throughout various small towns of the Western Pennsylvania region. The grant will also help NeighborWorks extend other partnership opportunities with businesses and nonprofits.
The KeyBank grant helps NeighborWorks provide a reliable source of support for first-time buyers. That includes people who have been sidelined from the all-important home loan approval process. NeighborWorks will link many hopeful home buyers up with courses, advice, and assistance with their down payments and other costs.
Here are the actual figures showing what the cash infusion will do. NeighborWorks will be able to:
- Set up 550 meetings between advisers and hopeful home buyers.
- Serve 400 individual buyers and households during the preparation and buying process.
- Offer HUD-certified homebuyer courses for 250 hopeful home buyers.
- Support 160 home buyers with down payment and closing cost help. Half of the down payment assistance funds are dedicated to Black households.
Ultimately, we can expect the KeyBank grant to promote buying activity and deed transfers in the Western Pennsylvania region. And that’s pretty exciting.
Why Western Pennsylvania Needs Support
Pittsburgh’s total population has stayed about the same over the past few years. But when the city ran a recent housing needs analysis, it came to light that people of modest incomes — in particular, Black residents of modest incomes — are being displaced by more affluent newcomers.
In Pittsburgh, rent prices have shot up. Homes for sale, too, are getting pricey. Perhaps most disturbing of all, the percentage of the Black population who own their homes is down 7%. For other groups, homeownership has been on the rise.
So, it isn’t just the hopeful Pittsburgh home buyers who could do with a little help. Businesses willing to offer affordable units could use support as well. The city also needs to bolster assistance for people who have owned their homes for some time.
Pittsburgh’s city planning department is currently hashing out comprehensive guidance for future development projects. At the same time, the department is changing the zoning code, to allow more homeowners to create accessory housing units.
Housing affordability is painfully hard to come by today. Now, city planners are asking if the single-unit-forward approach to residential zoning meets their residents’ needs. See more in Zoning It Up: “Downtowns Have to Evolve” on Deeds.com.
Only a fourth of Pittsburgh’s territory is currently zoned for multi-unit housing. To keep communities in place and intact, Pittsburgh needs to allow for a higher level of housing density.
Given the Pittsburgh area’s documented need, KeyBank’s new commitment is especially welcome.
NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania: The Backstory
Everyone deserves a home, says NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. The group is best known for offering affordable home loans and HUD-certified homeownership courses and counseling. It also helps people avoid foreclosure. It’s been doing its good work in the region for more than five decades — since 1968.
Affordable housing leader Dorothy Mae Richardson founded the group under the name Neighborhood Housing Services. Richardson and allied leaders set out to create pathways to safe, and affordable housing, at first focusing on the unmet needs of Northside Pittsburgh. Richardson cultivated community-based leadership. That’s a formula that thrives in the organization to this day.
NeighborWorks America, which is actually a nationwide network, sprung out of the local work in Pittsburgh. So, NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania has a well-respected history and a broad-based presence in the United States. The concept of “community-based development” originated in Pittsburgh — in the work of Dorothy Mae Richardson and friends.
For KeyCorp, the Commitment to Fairness Shines
KeyBank is the main part of KeyCorp®. It’s a two-centuries-old financial institution. Founded in Albany but based in Cleveland, it’s also a major corporation, present in 15 U.S. states. And it’s a public company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
KeyBank takes an interest in the health of local businesses. It makes mortgages available to households with modest incomes. It’s also deeply committed to inclusion initiatives — in its own employee base, with its suppliers, and in its networks. As part of its hiring strategy, KeyBank holds DEI summits for student interns. KeyBank also funds college and university scholarships and DEI programs.
Led by chair and CEO Christopher Gorman, the company has brought in a team of independent auditors to carry out a racial equity survey. The auditors come from the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, which focuses much of its practice on diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”). KeyBank expects the results of the audit in Summer 2024. The results should inform the company’s next steps, highlight potential connections, and suggest new ways to serve.
Not surprisingly, then, KeyBank appears among DiversityInc’s 2023 Top 50 Companies for Diversity — for the tenth consecutive year. KeyBank’s name also appears on several specific “best of” lists:
- Best companies for U.S. veterans.
- Best companies for people with disabilities.
- Best companies for employee resource groups.
- Best philanthropic companies.
KeyBank’s philanthropy is evident in the grant we’re talking about today: the one made to NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. The company also matches its employees’ individual donations to charities.
Of course, philanthropy is also good business. When more people thrive in neighborhoods, more people shop for homes and borrow funds. And when they’re ready, they’ll already know the bank that helped their neighbors in need.
Please note: Deeds.com has no affiliation with any organizations named in this article.
Supporting References
KeyBank®, a subsidiary of KeyCorp®, via CisionView / PRNewswire: $400,000 Investment by KeyBank to Help NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania Expand Efforts to Increase Equity in Homeownership in the Region (Oct. 31, 2023).
KeyBank®, a subsidiary of KeyCorp®, via CisionView / PRNewswire: KeyCorp Engages Third Party for Racial Equity Audit (May 4, 2023).
KeyBank®, via 3BL CSR Wire: KeyBank Ranked #22 on DiversityInc’s 2023 Top 50 Companies for Diversity (May 4, 2023).
University of Colorado at Boulder, Leeds School of Business, via Leeds News: For Bank, Supporting Diversity at Leeds is a Key Priority (Oct. 20, 2021).
Margaret J. Krauss for NPR News in Pittsburgh via 90.5 WESA Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting. WESA Think: A Lot of People With Low Incomes Have Left Pittsburgh, Study Finds (Oct. 10, 2023; updated Oct. 11, 2023).
And as linked.
More on topics: Most housing out of reach for elders, disabled, KeyBank’s fair housing survey
Photo credits: Shuvaev, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 International; and Gene Samit, via Pexels.
