HOPE in Action Presents Free Homeownership Event featuring Sellers on Jan. 30

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Jan. 24, 2024) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will host a HOPE in Action event featuring keynote speaker Bakari Sellers on Tuesday, Jan. 30, that is designed to help people become homeowners. The event is free and open to the public.

The first event of its kind in Guilford County, HOPE in Action seeks to increase awareness of how local community members can achieve the dream of homeownership while also informing the broader community of the barriers to and benefits of increased access to affordable housing.

HOPE – making Home Ownership Possible and Equitable – will begin the event with afternoon workshops in the Deese Ballroom at the Student Center, 1403 John W. Mitchell Drive in Greensboro. The schedule is:

• 1 p.m., Changing Your Mindset Plenary
• 1:30 p.m., Homebuyer Readiness
• 2:30 p.m., Accessing Homeownership and Mortgages 101
• 3:30 p.m., Homeownership and Post-Purchase
• 4:30 p.m., Homebuyer Fair

The event will conclude in Harrison Auditorium, 1009 Bluford St., at 6:30 p.m. with the keynote presentation by Sellers, a South Carolina attorney and civil rights activist who has served as a featured speaker at events for the National Education Association, College Democrats of America National Convention, and the 2008 and 2016 Democratic National Convention.

The author of New York Times bestseller “My Vanishing Country” and CNN political commentator, Sellers made history in 2006 when he defeated a 26-year incumbent state representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina General Assembly and youngest African American elected official in the nation at 22.

Sung Jin Lee, Ph.D., a professor of housing research in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at N.C. A&T, will deliver a lightning presentation, followed by a panel discussion on affordable housing.

Panelists will be Olugbemiga Jegede, M.D., vice president of clinical care-health equity for Cone Health; Kim Cameron, executive director of the N.C. A&T Real Estate Foundation Inc.; Marvin Price, executive vice president of economic development for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce; Assistant Greensboro Police Chief Stephanie Mardis; and Sofia Crisp, AFC, executive director of the Housing Consultants Group.

A clear bag policy remains in effect at Harrison Auditorium: bag(s) must be 12” x 6” x 12” or smaller, and made of clear plastic, vinyl or PVC. Non-approved bags are not permitted.

African American families are less likely to own their own homes than white families in the United States. The systemic discrimination of the past has persisted into present policy, from redlining to inequitable access to mortgage credit. Collectively, these practices are barriers to saving for a down payment, getting a loan, and affording a home – threatening the vitality and prosperity of every community.

Media are invited to cover the Jan. 30 event.

For more information, contact Tiffany Seawright, director of leadership and engagement in A&T’s Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement, at (336) 334-7792 or tdseawri@ncat.edu.