The Community Preservation
Corporation (CPC) has partnered with Esusu, the leading financial technology
company leveraging rent reporting for credit-building, to provide the company’s
innovative rent reporting, analytics, and rent relief services to CPC borrowers
and their tenants. CPC currently services more than $3.5 billion in multifamily
mortgages, and over the last decade has financed enough housing to support roughly
285,000 renters.
Today the barrier to financial stability for many in the
United States is their credit score or lack thereof. More than 45 million
Americans are deemed “credit invisible,” meaning one in every ten adults has no
credit history with one of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax,
Experian, or Transunion. The inability to build a credit score has been a
generational barrier to growth and prosperity for many low-income renters,
particularly in black and brown communities.
CPC and Esusu are committed to reducing the racial wealth gap
by breaking down barriers to financial stability and generational wealth
creation. By reporting on-time rent payments – often a person’s largest monthly
expense - renters with poor credit scores or no credit scores can build a
positive credit history and a chance at a stronger financial future.
“CPC and Esusu share a
commitment to dismantling barriers and creating equitable financial access in
underserved and underrepresented communities. This partnership provides a
unique service that can help our borrowers improve property performance, and
most importantly unlock economic opportunity and stability for the families who
call those buildings home,” said Rafael E. Cestero, CEO of the Community Preservation Corporation. “We look forward to continuing our work with
Esusu and our customers to empower their renters to build credit and take
advantage of the upward mobility that a strong credit history can provide.”
“We are thrilled to
partner with CPC and help advance credit and wealth-building opportunities for
[thousands of] their customers’ residents,” said Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, Co-Founders and
Co-CEOs of Esusu. “This partnership is
designed to create a financially stable entry point to credit-building for
low-income renters, especially at a time when many are facing economic
uncertainty.”
CPC is a nonprofit multifamily lender and investor with a
mission-driven focus on affordable and workforce housing finance in underserved
and underrepresented communities whose residents often face barriers to credit
building.
Multifamily rental property owners who finance their
properties with CPC will be offered the opportunity to access Esusu’s property
management analytics and rent reporting services. Tenants’ on-time rent
payments will be reported to the three major credit bureaus, allowing them to
build a positive credit history. Those with positive rental payment history
could see immediate results as the platform has an automatic 24-month look-back
feature. The partnership would also allow residents the opportunity to access
Esusu’s 0% rent stability program, which helps those at risk of missing a
rental payment. As tenants pay rent and build credit, owners can increase
on-time payments, prevent evictions, and lower vacancies.
If a person has poor credit or no credit score, it can
significantly limit their access to financial services, and they are often
subject to much higher rates when they do need to borrow money, impeding their
opportunities to move out of poverty.
Establishing a positive credit score can improve a person’s
long-term financial health, giving them access to easier credit approval, lower
interest rates, and better loan terms for things like credit cards, car
financing, future rental housing, small business loans, and homeownership
opportunities.
In addition
to earning credit improvement, renters will have access to the Esusu Renters Marketplace, where they can access other
financial literacy and credit education courses to help support their path to
financial independence and success.