It has been several years, thankfully, since our political leaders gave up on the notion that government alone can solve society's problems. Today's clear-eyed politicians understand that the public sector must build partnerships with the private sector and with community groups in order to make much progress in improving the lives of ordinary people.

But what is conventional wisdom today was something of a novel concept a decade ago when state government began pondering better ways of providing affordable housing for lower-income citizens. The government-run housing programs up to then had been moderately successful, but demand far exceeded supply. Financing was inconsistently available, and technical expertise in project management often was scarce. Those two problems often made it doubly hard to build low-income housing in rural communities.

Desperate for help, government leaders sought help from North Carolina's financial institutions, which responded in December 1990 with creation of the Community Investment Corp. of North Carolina (CICNC). CICNC, established as an arm of the North Carolina Bankers Association, would provide mortgage loans to build low-income housing units for people whose income typically was only 60 percent of the local median income. CICNC developed a loan pooling process and other innovative partnerships that made it easier to finance affordable housing projects in small towns where that type of lending was scarce. Because each bank's individual exposure was reduced, many were willing to contribute to the pool, which made loans much easier to obtain.

Now with 105 member institutions, CICNC has just approved its 100th loan for low-income housing, a 90-unit development for senior citizens in Raleigh. Those 100 loans, representing a commitment of about $90 million, have built almost 4,000 homes and apartments. Some are in big cities like Raleigh and Charlotte, but most are in small towns, places like Franklin, King, Morganton, Roxboro and Yadkinville — 38 different towns in all. All are developed under the federal low-income housing tax credit program and all are new construction or substantially rehabilitated multi-family and senior-citizen developments.

CICNC's staff provides technical assistance to project sponsors — government agencies and nonprofit and for-profit community groups — to help get projects successfully through the planning stages. But CICNC's most valuable assistance is that its loans help sponsors obtain maximum leverage from public and private funds available for affordable housing.

Along with the right to a good education, it could be argued that all North Carolinians have a right, regardless of their income, to live in a safe, decent and affordable home. Tar paper shacks and outhouses have no place in a progressive, affluent state like North Carolina. We should be grateful that so many committed community groups are working to provide better housing for lower-income citizens. And we should especially be proud that our banks are willing, even eager, to help out.

-- Steve Tuttle

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