Cornerstone Renter Equity

Our mission: We are a community-oriented partner providing a customized, family centered approach to asset building and personal growth.

Our vision: We will be the leading model for enabling communities to thrive through empowerment, goal setting, and equitable opportunities.

Our history: Cornerstone Renter Equity began as a Community Development Financial Institution in 1986, providing socially conscience, low-interest loans to community partners in Over-the-Rhine in downtown, Cincinnati. As the agency matured, we saw a need for safe affordable housing in Over-the-Rhine and began developing units to meet the need. We developed 25 units, which we continue to manage to this day.

Over the years, we built relationships with our renters and began to see that affordable housing only goes so far. In order for low-income families to achieve long-term stability, they need assets. So, we began focusing our efforts on helping families build assets by investing in themselves and making positive contributions to their community. In 2001, we started a long-term innovative savings program called the Renter Equity Club, which enabled renters to earn money by paying rent on time and attending community council meetings.

For 20 years we operated the program behind the gates of the properties we owned and managed. In time we realized that our mission was greater, and needed to grow beyond our walls into the entire community. In 2022, we opened the program to all renters of affordable housing in Over-the-Rhine, and increased the ways in which renters can earn money. Today, all (100%) of the people we serve are low-income (at or below 80% AMI and Medicaid-eligible) and live in affordable housing provided by Cornerstone, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, and Preservation of Affordable Housing.

The Renter Equity Club currently serves 87 households, 97% of whom are African American with an average annual income of $28,000. These households are comprised of 170 individuals, 103 of whom are adults (48 of whom are over the age of 50), and 67 of whom are children.

Cornerstone is a crucial, family-centered partner, offering stability, removing barriers, and lifting the voices of our city’s most marginalized people. We offer 25 units of safe affordable housing in tandem with unique a Renter Equity Club that enables families to increase their income, build assets, and improve the quality of their lives.

The Renter Equity Club is open to any resident in Over-the-Rhine at or below 80% AMI, and currently serves families that live in Cornerstone housing, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, and Preservation of Affordable Housing. Guided by our Family and Financial Coaches, Renter Equity members identify personal and financial goals, and earn money for a long-term savings account by:

• paying rent on time

• completing financial literacy classes

• setting personal goals with our Financial and Family Coaches

• investing in health (ex: attending doctor’s appts, fitness program)

• investing in community (ex: volunteering, attending community meetings)

• completing annual self-sufficiency assessments

Members can earn up to $2,000 a year, and after three years, they can withdraw that money to achieve their goals. This could be anything from buying a car, paying off debt, or starting a business, to pursuing an education, taking a vacation, or putting a down payment on a house.

Recognizing that three years can be a long wait for families in crisis mode, we provide direct assistance in the interim for short-term needs/emergencies such as groceries, utilities, medical bills, and rent.

The Renter Equity Club is changing lives in Over-the-Rhine through two critical and integrated strategic areas:

1. Family coaching to help families keep their lives and goals on track. This includes helping them maximize their equity earnings, connecting them to education, training, and healthcare resources, and providing direct assistance/emergency support for short-term needs so that they can achieve long-term goals.

2. Financial coaching and matched savings to help families set financial goals with strategies to achieve them. This includes providing in-person and online financial literacy classes as well as workshops on credit building and savings. When 4 in 10 Americans do not have enough savings to cover a $400 emergency (Federal Reserve), our families have $1,000 saved.

In addition to coaching, we empower people to use their voice through the Over-the-Rhine Community Council, monthly member meetings, and public meetings, and we encourage members to be active in their community through volunteering, community event organizing, block clean up, and community gardening.