HPU Donates $500,000 to Provide Affordable Housing in High Point
HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 6, 2025– High Point University is donating $500,000 to the High Point Community Foundation (HPCF) to help provide quality, affordable housing for families in the city of High Point.
HPU President Nido Qubein announced the gift tonight prior to sitting down for a conversation with former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson in front of an audience inside the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center. HPCF President Paul Lessard and HPCF Chair Barry Safrit joined Qubein on stage to accept the donation.
HPU’s gift will support a Housing Impact Fund that the HPCF, in partnership with Self-Help Ventures Fund, has launched with the goal of providing low-interest loans to developers to build affordable, multi-family rental housing. The initiative aims to build more than 1,000 housing units for people who earn 30-80% of the area median income.
“Dr. Qubein and High Point University have always stepped up and supported the High Point Community Foundation and the greater community of High Point when a need arises,” Lessard said. “This Housing Impact Fund is an ambitious project that absolutely will change the quality of life for so many folks in High Point. We are grateful for the support and honored to call High Point’s University our teammate and faithful benefactor to our community.”
This is the third six-figure donation that HPU has given over the first few weeks of 2025 to help support essential workers, minority business owners and Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina. The university has presented gifts totaling $850,000 so far this year and a total of $50 million in the last decade.
“We believe in the future and prosperity of the city of High Point, and we understand that teachers, healthcare providers and other essential workers are critical to our community thriving and continuing to be a great place to raise a family,” Qubein said. “This donation will help essential workers and their families have access to affordable housing and ensure they can live in the city where they work.”
Qubein announced on Jan. 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, that HPU is donating $250,000 to Business High Point to support local minority entrepreneurs and develop the Washington Street Historic District in High Point. Qubein said the donation honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of creating a “beloved community” for all residents.
On Jan. 8, Qubein presented a $100,000 donation to Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, during his visit to campus. The donation will help Samaritan’s Purse provide additional support to people who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and the wildfires raging across Los Angeles, California.
These recent gifts reflect HPU’s continual support of the community since 2005, including contributing several billions of dollars in economic impact, establishing law and physical therapy pro bono clinics operated by faculty and students, increasing employee positions on campus from a couple hundred in 2005 to more than 2,500 today, and providing 500,000 hours of annual service contributed by students, faculty and staff.