A Roof, A Key, A Future: Financing Affordable Housing with Purpose 

By Kelly Skalicky, CEO, Stearns Bank

In many ways, Fall is a season of transformation and renewal. It marks start-of-school new beginnings, families settling in, and the end of relocation and summer-time search for new housing. In fact, the National Association of Realtors has found the highest surge of housing market activity—buying and selling—in the summer months. Throughout the busy summer months, millions of Americans made finding affordable, reliable housing a top priority, bringing new beginnings for many.

As the housing season winds down, I think about a story shared by a colleague that offers the promise and power in a new home. He felt so proud visiting a housing development we financed when a family joyfully opened their doors, offering a tour of their new home. Their young daughter was so eager to show off her new bedroom—her smile made clear it was not just a bedroom but a powerful launching pad for her future. A future that every child, family, and community deserve—a future where we all have agency and are empowered with new beginnings.

At Stearns, we’re not afraid of tackling challenges to empower communities to build life-changing solutions—like increasing access to affordable housing. We were one of the first U.S. banks to finance affordable housing through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program after it launched with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. When major national banks hesitated to support developers’ use of the new LIHTC, we knew then, what we know now: this program would substantially increase affordable housing and strengthen communities in lasting ways. Today, we’re proud to have financed more than $2.8B in affordable housing, which has increased affordable housing by over 40,000 homes nationwide. We’re not the new kids on the block; we’re experienced, trusted partners in affordable housing with success stories from thousands of communities to prove it.

Guided by our belief that “your success is our success,” our teams celebrated summer groundbreakings of exciting new housing developments. In June, we attended the ribbon-cutting for Park Place at Addison Road Metro, a transformative $96.1MM investment in the Capital Heights area of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Park Place provides a 196-unit mixed-use community with 11,000 square feet of retail space, and as Maryland Governor, Wes Moore, shared “this is one of the largest single investments in the Capitol Heights community in the history of our state.” In Fort Myers, Florida, we celebrated the Bloom groundbreaking, a 336-unit community offering affordable rental options for low-to-moderate income households such as first responders, teachers, and health care workers. 

Our successful approach to increasing affordable housing demonstrates the power of private-public partnerships. We collaborate hand-in-hand with the developers, community leaders, policymakers, and future residents to create vital, lasting housing solutions built by the community, for the community. Developers and communities are at the center of everything we do—whether it’s providing flexible capital or ensuring residents and neighborhoods truly benefit from our development in as many ways as possible —with their needs always coming first. We are eager to see the many positive, long-lasting opportunities created by Park Place and Bloom in their local communities.

We’re also pursuing new, innovative initiatives to close emerging housing gaps known as the Missing Middle Housing Gap.

Missing Middle Housing refers to 2 to 20-unit dwellings and other neighborhood-scale homes that disappeared when single-family zoning was prioritized nationwide. As we see consumer demands shift, younger, technology-driven generations are seeking mobile, walkable lifestyles. The key to creating more affordable, walkable communities is to innovate and diversify within existing neighborhoods by adding smaller housing options sized for neighborhood lot footprints. The emerging need for small-scale housing also provides an on-ramp opportunity for emerging developers to cut their teeth or expand their expertise to Missing Middle Housing.

State and local policymakers are taking notice, with more than 148 municipalities reforming zoning laws to allow Missing Middle housing types by-right. With dozens of Missing Middle Housing projects in our portfolio, we’re excited to lead the shift in the housing landscape and give established and emerging developers alike the resources to bring these housing types back into communities where they’re needed most. For any developer looking to build Missing Middle Housing—reach out to our team. It may be a new beginning with unlimited promise for you and your community.

At the end of the day, housing is about people and communities. It’s about agency and empowering others, by increasing access and opportunities, delivering on the promise of a new home and new beginnings. A promise that each one of us deserves.  

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