Roughly 100 million people in the United States are renters, and for many, the path to homeownership remains elusive due to a lack of financial education. Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose™, a faith-driven multifamily real estate firm, believes this gap is both a societal failure and an opportunity. Through 15 years of operating multifamily properties, Libman has developed a community investment model that places financial literacy at its core. That model is now being advanced through Investing With Purpose, with a live example at a property owned by Integrity Holdings Group (IHG), a firm Libman co-founded.
The wealth gap between renters and homeowners is stark: the average homeowner has a net worth of over $350,000, while the average renter has a net worth of around $10,500. Libman argues this disparity stems not primarily from income differences but from a lack of knowledge, access, and compounding decisions made without the right information. “We have done a really good job of reconciling our giving and our philanthropy to our core values,” he says. “But when it comes to our investments, we outsource our conscience and our thinking to someone else.”
The financial literacy program is currently operating at a 418-unit property in Lubbock, Texas, owned and operated by IHG. The property runs a program in partnership with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, delivered by on-site ministry coordinators. The free program covers debt reduction, credit building, and savings strategies—foundational mechanics of financial health that many multifamily residents have never accessed in a structured way. This is the same Asset Ministry Program framework that Investing With Purpose advances across its own portfolio.
What makes the Lubbock program particularly notable is that the community is made up of individually deeded duplexes. Residents who complete the program and hit qualifying milestones have a pathway to purchase their own unit, moving from tenant to homeowner, and in some cases to landlord, within a realistic timeframe backed by partnerships with local credit unions and banks. “Maybe the single mom who thought she would be renting forever is, two years later, a landlord,” says Libman. “That changes the trajectory for her and her kids.”
The model is not merely philanthropy; it also yields tangible business benefits. Retention data from properties running this model shows that residents with six or seven friends in the same complex are roughly 45 to 50 percent less likely to leave. Lease attrition at properties with structured community engagement programs drops by 40 to 50 percent, lowering turnover costs and stabilizing income. The financial literacy program is thus an investment in community stability, which in turn supports asset performance.
Investing With Purpose is also developing summer tutoring and kids’ programming at several portfolio properties to address the documented learning gap that affects children in multifamily housing during school breaks. The goal across all initiatives is to meet real needs, build genuine connection, and create an environment where people want to stay.
The Lubbock program is relatively new, with full outcomes still being tracked. However, the framework is replicable, and Libman is applying it across a growing portfolio through Investing With Purpose. The broader question the model raises is what responsibility an operator has to the people living inside its assets. For most operators, the answer stops at maintenance, safety, and lease compliance. For a faith-driven operator, Libman argues, that answer is insufficient. “Where people live affects almost everything their life touches,” he says. “The communities they are building, the people they are with, if we can impact somebody’s life inside a community, and then you see the butterfly effect of that, it is immeasurable.”
More information on the Asset Ministry Program and the firm’s broader community investment model is available at investingwithpurpose.org/impact.
