Our Organization

The Center for Community Capital is a non-partisan, multi-disciplinary research center housed within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a leading center for research and policy analysis on the power of financial capital to transform households and communities in the United States. The Center’s in-depth analyses help policymakers, advocates and the private sector find sustainable ways to expand economic opportunity to more people, more effectively. CCC is part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Sciences and is a Center for Urban and Regional Studies affiliate.

For twenty years, the Center has attracted research support from governments, foundations, private companies, and academic organizations, and has emerged as a trusted source for research, policy analysis and commentary on critical issues of financial capital flows and impact. Notably, the Center has done research on the Community Advantage Program using a longitudinal study that follows Self-Help’s mortgage borrowers for over a decade, and has published results extensively. The Center also works on both the local and national levels to inform policy and practice.

The Center’s research has informed policy debates on financial issues affecting lower-income people: Our researchers have testified before Congress on topics such as small-dollar credit, housing finance reform, mortgage data reporting, and Community Reinvestment Act regulation. The Center’s findings have been disseminated in books, academic journals, policy briefs, and at industry and academic conferences.

The Center for Community Capital was founded in 1997 by Dr. Michael A. Stegman, former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. When Dr. Stegman stepped down, Dr. Roberto G. Quercia, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, led the Center for more than a decade. In May 2020, Dr. Mai Nguyen, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, became the new director of CCC.