Elizabeth Bridgewater is executive director of the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust.
BRATTLEBORO-Every April, communities and housing organizations across this country recognize Fair Housing Month, commemorating the 1968 passage of the landmark civil rights law that outlawed discriminatory housing practices.
Yet despite nearly six decades of fair housing efforts and advocacy, people of color continue to face challenges in realizing the American dream of homeownership.
Our country has a deep history of systemic racial discrimination in the housing industry. This discrimination, once both legal and widely accepted, has created entrenched patterns of segregation in our communities and very effectively excluded whole populations of color from accumulating wealth through homeownership, something that white families have benefited from across multiple generations.
The fact is, Vermont remains one of the least diverse states in the nation and has one of the highest homeownership gaps in the country between Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and white residents.
The policies and practices that created this inequity were intentional. This calls for an equally intentional response.
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Here in Vermont, there are some positive things happening to address this disparity and change the experience for BIPOC homebuyers.
• The BIPOC Financial Empowerment program piloted here in Brattleboro has received funding from the M&T Charitable Foundation and has expanded into the state to provide knowledge, tools, resources, and coaching to support the financial well-being of BIPOC people.
The program offers free, trauma-informed, culturally relevant financial education through monthly workshops on various financial topics; a supportive affinity group setting; and one-on-one coaching.
• Our colleagues at the Champlain Housing Trust have announced the statewide expansion of their Homeownership Equity Program, a special-purpose credit program, offering down payment assistance to BIPOC shared-equity buyers. As a shared-equity provider, WWHT will have access to this funding for BIPOC homebuyers in our community.
• The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston is opening Lift Up, a new special-purpose credit program designated for BIPOC homebuyers.
The program provides $50,000 in down-payment and closing-cost assistance toward the purchase of a first home. The program is available through member banks of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
• The Vermont Housing Finance Agency is continuing their First Generation Homebuyer program, a $15,000 grant toward a home purchase targeting populations that have been historically excluded from homeownership.
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Home is where the heart is, and home is where the wealth is, too.
By empowering prospective BIPOC homebuyers with financial counseling and homebuyer education resources, access to capital and credit, and a more equitable playing field in the public policy arenas, we are building greater homeownership opportunities - and wealth - for people of color for generations to come.
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