News

Initiative focuses initially on Black homeownership education and opportunities.

Homeownership is a cornerstone of wealth building, and Black families disproportionately rent their homes. Black individuals are also underrepresented in the mortgage industry. These factors contribute to the comparatively low homeownership rate among Black families.  

To help close these homeownership gaps, U.S. Bank is introducing U.S. Bank Access Home, a part of U.S. Bank Access Commitment™, the company’s long-term approach to building wealth and redefining how it serves diverse customers and create more opportunities for diverse employees. The initiative includes a $3 million investment over the course of the next three years, focused on the Black community first where the disparities are the largest.

"Homeownership is the key to stability, financial wellness and generational wealth,” said Tim Welsh, vice chair of consumer and business banking for U.S. Bank. “We cannot do this alone and we share tremendous appreciation for our partners who are bringing this work to communities across the country. We are excited to get to work and create lasting impact in so many ways, including education, access to the lending options, financing, our new mortgage loan officer development program designed for reaching the Black community, and more.”

In addition to expanded access to financial information across all markets, U.S. Bank is providing a nearly $1.6 million investment from the mortgage business to support a wide range of outreach, engagement and educational efforts across five initial markets: Las Vegas, Little Rock, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis and nationally with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those partner organizations include:

Las Vegas:

Neighborhood Housing Services of Southern Nevada

Make Homes Possible

Little Rock:

Martin Luther King Commission

P.A.R.K – Positive Atmosphere Reaches Kids

Milwaukee:

Acts Housing

Safe & Sound

Milwaukee Urban League

Riverworks Development Corp

Minneapolis:

Minnesota Homeownership Center

Build Wealth MN

Twin Cities Urban League

Project For Pride In Living

St. Louis:

St. Louis Urban League

Justine Petersen

National:

Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae

Additionally, to help increase representation of Black individuals in the mortgage industry, U.S. Bank is creating a mortgage loan officer development program that includes a full year of technical and community outreach training for new to industry loan officers in partnership with housing agencies, community leaders and minority realtor trade organizations.

The program is targeted to the significant talent pool within the Black community that have shown strong leadership skills and sales acumen but have not considered mortgage as a viable career opportunity due to limited outreach from the industry. 

U.S. Bank hopes to grow the program to include more diverse candidates and ensure its sales team and leadership pipeline reflect the communities it serves. U.S. Bank also launched a trainee program for residential appraisers to increase Black representation in appraiser roles.

Visit U.S. Bank Access Commitment for more information, and watch the video on the U.S. Bank Access Home Symposium.