Advancing Racial Justice: MN Homeownership Center
“Homeownership is the primary way people generate wealth in this country,” notes Julie Gugin, president of the St. Paul-based Minnesota Homeownership Center. “If we’re serious about addressing equity issues in employment, education, and wealth building, homeownership is the fundamental part of the equation. That’s why we do the work that we do.”
That work is helping people become and stay homeowners, and that includes striving to close what Gugin calls “the dismal homeownership gap between white buyers and Black buyers.” Her nonprofit is an intermediary supporting a range of efforts that further homeownership and is the only such intermediary in the state. It provides funding, technical assistance, and adviser training to 35 partner agencies that deliver services to those households, services that include pre-purchase education, counseling, mortgage advising, and foreclosure prevention.
“Our mission is to support those who have the greatest barriers [to homeownership], and in Minnesota that means lower-income households and households of color,” Gugin says.
During the pandemic’s most virulent months, the Minnesota Homeownership Center worked with metro-area counties and cities to help keep people in their homes. “We deployed close to $5 million in Covid relief for homeowners who were facing crises,” Gugin says. As a result, “we’ve been instrumental in preserving homeownership for hundreds of families impacted by Covid since late 2020.”
One of the key ways the center seeks to advance what might be called homeownership equity is by supporting down payment assistance programs. Last year, the nonprofit convened a group of 16 organizations involved in these programs to establish industrywide best practices. These guidelines recommend, for instance, that the amount of down payment assistance provided be at least 3% of the county’s median home price. This level of support makes working with a lower-income homebuyer more attractive to lenders and realtors.
This year, the Minnesota Homeownership Center will be busy at the state Capitol lobbying for new programs designed to boost homeownership among communities of color. One is a “special purpose credit program,” which is designed to make it easier for economically disadvantaged groups to access loans and credit. The nonprofit is working with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to set up a special purpose credit program focused on Black homeowners. The Minnesota Homeownership Center also is pushing the state to fund a first-generation homebuyer program.
Aarica Coleman, Housing and Redevelopment Authority administrator for the City of Bloomington, credits a Homeownership Center presentation to the City Council for inspiring the city’s own down payment assistance program, which launched last year. “The Center’s network of homeownership advisers is really valuable,” Coleman adds. “And that’s who we tap into for the homeowner education courses that we’re offering here in Bloomington.”
Despite what you may hear, Gugin says, renters aspire to homeownership. There are good reasons for them to do so: “Homeownership supports better education, better employment, more civic engagement.” And with home prices and mortgage rates rising higher than incomes, people of color who want to become homeowners will increasingly need the kind of help the Minnesota Homeownership Center and its partners provide.
