The Carpenter House, Inc. was created by Baltimore native and retired NFL player Keion Carpenter in 2005. During his 7 years playing professional football, which included 3 seasons with the Buffalo Bills and five with the Atlanta Falcons, Carpenter always knew that he wanted to take the opportunities afforded him on-the-field and use them to make a relevant and significant impact off-the-field. Having been raised in a single-family household, Carpenter saw the struggles his mother went through. It is this first-hand experience that sparked his passion and desire to give back. And, when he retired in his 8th year with the NFL, Carpenter began the formal transition from being a professional athlete to that of businessman and community advocate.

The lack of affordable housing is a significant hardship for low-income and single-parent households, preventing them from meeting the basic needs of nutrition, healthcare, education and financial stability. TCH looks to address these issues by providing the tools and opportunity often not available to this demographic. Working in partnership with local government agencies and community/civic organizations, TCH will purchase properties as well as accept donated sites within Baltimore City; rehabilitate them; and, make them available to qualified low-income and single-parent families that would otherwise not be able to experience the American Dream of homeownership.

TCH will also offer educational workshops, financial mentoring/management services and holistic family programs in the effort to positively change the dismal statistics that disproportionately plague low-income families and at-risk communities; directly attacking homelessness, poverty, hunger, joblessness, substance abuse and domestic violence.

TCH believes that when you EMPOWER a family, you EMPOWER a community!

Solutions Solve Problems
The statistics are against us, however with your help we can make a difference in the community. Most government and charity programs only focus on the need for shelter for very low income families. They do not always offer the training and help to take a family from low income to home owners. We offer a solution to the problem and teach the family how to work to make the house their home.

Key Statistics
More than half of the estimated 128,000 rental units in Baltimore City rent for $400 or less per month, the lowest in the metropolitan area, yet the city's poorest residents still have trouble finding housing they can afford to live in. Nearly half of renter households with children are paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent (i.e., they are paying rents that are "unaffordable" given their incomes), yet more than four in 10 of them are living in physically inadequate housing. Many of these problems are related to the age of the housing stock, which averages 50-something years in Baltimore, compared with 40-something for central cities on average and 30-something for U.S. housing overall. More than 80 percent of Baltimore's low-end rental housing stock is in the hands of mom and pop landlords who own fewer than five dwelling units.

Reference: Low-end Rental Housing: The Forgotten Story in Baltimore's Housing Boom by Johns Hopkins University Professor Sandra J. Newman (published by the Urban Institute)