When Gene’s Po-Boys closed the doors of its iconic pink eatery in 2019 after 50 years in business, longtime regulars bemoaned the loss of a favorite, funky neighborhood institution.

Later this year, a new business will open in the space at the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues, promising to serve customers of the low- and moderate-income community in a new way — not with fried shrimp on French bread but through financial literacy tools and training.

The business is Credit Human, a San Antonio-based credit union with a New Orleans-born chief executive. D.J. Johnson, owner of the building that will house the new branch — or “financial health center” as the company calls its sites — said the former po-boy shop is a perfect location for Credit Human, which will be the institution’s fourth since it moved into the local market last fall.

A fifth is set to open by year’s end, with three more planned for 2024.

Johnson, who also owns the Baldwin & Co. bookstore and coffee shop next to the building on Elysian Fields, sees his new tenant as a partner in his effort to improve his corner of New Orleans.

“We are on a mission to improve literacy in the world and that includes financial literacy,” said Johnson, who grew up on Painters Street in the 8th Ward. “They perfectly aligned with that mission.”

Credit Human, he hopes, will provide an important piece of the puzzle by providing locals with access to a financial institution that will help them learn how to save and invest.

Missions aligned

When Johnson returned to his childhood neighborhood after living in Atlanta and working as a tech professional, he was determined to give back to his hometown and create something new. The vehicle he found for that goal was the cluster of buildings on Elysian Fields near St. Claude.

He purchased the building that would become Baldwin & Co. in February 2019, opening the bookstore and coffee shop two years later following an extensive renovation.

In August 2020, Johnson bought the Gene’s Po-Boy building for $2 million. For more than a year, he fielded calls from developers and tenants who wanted to turn the property into a trendy restaurant with short-term rentals on top.

“New Orleans has a plethora of restaurants,” Johnson said. “I wanted to partner with someone who would be more than a tenant. It’s about what can we do to create better opportunities for their families. I didn’t feel just putting a restaurant there would accomplish those things.”

In 2021, Credit Human’s President and CEO Steve Hennigan was in New Orleans scouting locations for the credit union’s move into the market. He stopped in Baldwin & Co. by chance and met Johnson.

“We started talking and realized we were on the same mission and just kind of took it from there,” Johnson said.

Deep roots

While similar to banks, credit unions are typically structured as nonprofit organizations and their customers are considered members. Their roots date to the Great Depression in the 1930s, when many Americans had lost whatever money they had and no longer had access to financial institutions. Credit unions were formed by labor unions as a way to help workers pool, save and borrow money.

In their early years, credit unions were strictly limited to members affiliated with an organization like a municipal employer or a union. Today, many credit unions are open to commercial customers.

Louisiana has 152 credit unions with total assets of $16 billion. By comparison, 123 commercial banks do business in the state with in-state deposits of more than $144 billion.

Credit Human was founded in the 1930s and for decades did business as San Antonio Credit Union, until 2016, when it rebranded as it began expanding outside of San Antonio. Today, it has 22 mostly Texas locations and some $3.6 billion in assets.

Credit Human is currently renovating the 2,000-square-foot ground-floor space of the former Gene’s and hopes to have the branch open there by the end of the year.

It follows locations that have opened in recent months on Tulane Avenue, Oak Street and, most recently, Freret Street. A location on Magazine Street will follow later this year.

Hennigan said New Orleans is ripe for credit unions because consolidation of many regional banks over time has pushed financial decisions to New York, Dallas or Atlanta. Meanwhile, smaller banks tend to concentrate on more affluent households and businesses.

“There’s no access to credit,” Hennigan said. “We are trying to create borrowers and savers in a cooperative way.”