This Black and Latino Company Is Using Blockchain To House Homeless Families

Do you know that at least five million homes are wanted in america to unravel the housing downside?

It’s no coincidence that you’ve seen a couple of meme on social media concerning the impossibility of recent generations to purchase a house of their very own. Anybody on the lookout for a house at this time is aware of that the choices are virtually nonexistent.

In line with a 2021 Realtor.com study, the availability of houses on the market in america is close to an all-time low, and the hole between provide and demand is widening.

The U.S. is brief 5.24 million houses, up 1.4 million from the 2019 hole of three.84 million. The U.S. Census discovered that 12.3 million U.S. households have been fashioned from January 2012 via June 2021, however solely 7 million new single-family houses have been constructed throughout that point.

In the meantime, millions of people are homeless or susceptible to homelessness throughout the nation.

“On any given evening in America, there are over 500,000 individuals sleeping on the streets although research present that rising entry to everlasting housing has the potential to cut back homelessness by 50%,” said Vernon J., founder, and CEO of EquityCoin. “That is the disaster of our time, and we’d like extra private and non-private packages that may straight deal with this primary necessity.”

Based as a public profit company, EquityCoin, Inc. created the primary digital token on the blockchain-backed by reasonably priced housing. The corporate offers residences for these at risk of homelessness whereas serving to group members construct generational wealth via fractional actual property possession.

Vernon, a industrial actual property skilled and investor with greater than 16 years of expertise, and greater than $150 million in transactions, launched EquityCoin in January 2021 after renting considered one of his models within the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, to a mom and son dwelling in a shelter, he defined in a press launch.

“I noticed tears of pleasure in her eyes once I handed her the keys to her new unit. By no means earlier than that second had I felt such achievement. From that time on, my goal was clear – to assist 1000’s of households in want of reasonably priced housing,” says Vernon. “When landlords step as much as present housing to the underserved, everybody wins. The tenant receives important everlasting housing, town retains households off the streets, and property homeowners assure their money movement via authorities lease vouchers.”

For Vernon and his crew, the truth that actual property is the one sort of funding that has created extra wealth than every other asset class stands in stark distinction to the housing disaster skilled by minorities in america.

“By marrying blockchain expertise and reasonably priced housing, we are going to revitalize city areas from coast to coast, constructing a extra wholesome, livable, and sustainable society. It’s not solely necessary to do the work, but additionally to have the cultural empathy to supply a holistic strategy to community-building,” states Beatriz Durant, EquityCoin, Inc.’s Director of Property Administration.

“It was important that we construct an organization with executives and board administrators that really signify the communities we serve,” Vernon declared. 

Different core members of the EquityCoin crew embody Akil Ash, a Venmo alumnus who has helped develop a number of the world’s hottest apps; Beatriz Durant, an Power and Environmental Design chief with 14 years as a property supervisor; Michael McConnell, a group developer with 15 years of expertise constructing social networks; and eventually, Jey Van Sharp, a company technique veteran, through MyÜberLife Consulting, who has helped develop manufacturers resembling Diesel, Cartier, Pepsi, Neuehouse and UNIQLO.

“As an Afro-Nativo Venezuelan who grew up in Brooklyn, I perceive the extreme disenfranchisement of Black and brown individuals with reference to investing and homeownership. Possession and freedom go hand in hand. Extra particularly, EquityCoin is aware of we may have no equality with out fairness. EquityCoin is happy to have an funding automobile that gives a path for Black and brown individuals to personal and have fairness into probably the most basic asset in America: the house,” says board member Jey Van-Sharp.