Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Charmira and Quincy Pilgrim wanted to become homeowners a decade ago when they got married.<\/p>\n
But over the years, job losses, jobs that didn\u2019t pay enough, children, unpaid maternity leave<\/a>, and rising costs of living made saving for homeownership impossible.<\/p>\n They were finally able to start putting money away late last year. And this spring, they found a $315,000 house they wanted to buy in West Oak Lane<\/a>. But they were short thousands of dollars for their down payment and closing costs.<\/p>\n What got them and their five children into their new home was a $10,000 first-time homebuyer grant<\/a> funded by a group of Quakers in Germantown<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a blessing that I ended up getting the grant because money was tight,\u201d said Charmira, a 32-year-old special education teacher and case manager.<\/p>\n Up-front cost is a common barrier to homeownership for renters in Philadelphia and across the country. Grants for down payments and closing costs<\/a> can help aspiring homeowners get in the door. Governments<\/a>, mortgage lenders, and nonprofits are common funders.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes the Pilgrims\u2019 grant stand out. It\u2019s one of five $10,000 grants that Green Street Friends Meeting, a Quaker congregation in Germantown, is funding to help people buy their first homes. It\u2019s part of the congregation\u2019s racial justice plan<\/a> to redistribute wealth to Black residents in the Germantown area as a form of reparations.<\/p>\n When Green Street announced the homebuyer grants in March, it said it sees reparations as \u201ceconomic and spiritual repair for the intergenerational harms of slavery, Jim Crow, and their afterlives.\u201d Reparations, it said, are \u201cintended to address the theft and pillaging of Black wealth\u201d for hundreds of years through systemic discrimination.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Black home buyers face barriers from past racist policies and current practices<\/a><\/p>\n Lucy Duncan<\/a>, a member of Green Street, said the homebuyer grants are \u201ca redistribution of wealth that\u2019s about fairness and equity.\u201d <\/p>\n The goal is to keep Black residents from being priced out of their communities and \u201cprovide resources to help maintain Black Germantown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rebecca L. Grant, a Black member of Green Street\u2019s reparations committee who has been a Germantown homeowner for 22 years, said the committee wanted to eliminate a hurdle to homeownership and the wealth it can create for Black residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew these grants wouldn\u2019t undo generations of discrimination<\/a>,\u201d Grant said, \u201dbut we thought we could make a difference one family at a time.”<\/p>\n How the homebuyer grants work<\/p>\n To distribute the grants, Green Street partnered with birdSEED<\/a>, a Washington-based nonprofit that aims to reduce racial wealth gaps in the Washington and Philadelphia areas. As part of its work, the nonprofit helps members of historically disadvantaged communities buy their first homes.<\/p>\n The Quaker congregation contributed funds to birdSEED\u2019s Housing Justice Grant Program<\/a> and required that its money go to Black homebuyers purchasing in the 19144 or 19138 zip codes.<\/p>\n In the Philadelphia area, birdSEED typically awards grants of between $5,000 and $10,000 for down payments and closing costs. An advisory board reviews applications and interviews top candidates. The board scores applicants based on their readiness to purchase a home and the impact the grant would have, said Leslie Case, birdSEED\u2019s co-executive director.<\/p>\n Candidates need to have lived in the area in which they are buying for at least three years. They cannot have purchased a home before. And their household can make up to $150,000 a year. Preference is given to populations who have historically faced barriers to homeownership.<\/p>\n Homebuyers can apply for the current round of birdSEED\u2019s housing justice grants<\/a> until Sept. 30.<\/p>\n The nonprofit has awarded about 40 homebuying grants so far in the Philadelphia region, which includes surrounding counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.<\/p>\n Maegan Scott, birdSEED\u2019s co-executive director, said the grants funded by Green Street represent \u201cmomentum\u201d as the nonprofit seeks to expand its presence in the Philadelphia area.<\/p>\n A majority of the nonprofit\u2019s housing justice grants have gone to first-generation homebuyers. But a common thread ties all applicants together. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s looking for stability,\u201d Scott said. \u201cEveryone is looking ahead to the next generation, the generation after that.\u201d<\/p>\n Green Street\u2019s reparations initiative<\/p>\n In June 2021, Green Street pledged to spend $50,000 a year for 10 years as part of its reparations work, spurred by a moral calling and the realization that the congregation had a large pot of money in unrestricted reserves.<\/p>\n The following year, the congregation partnered with attorneys to help Black Germantown residents make wills and straighten out legal ownership of their properties<\/a>.<\/p>\n In about a year and a half, clinics to resolve and prevent tangled titles<\/a> preserved more than $11.3 million in housing wealth for more than 85 families by protecting homes that might otherwise have been lost because of unclear legal ownership, according to Green Street. It was a massive return on the $25,000 the congregation spent on fines and legal services for families who didn\u2019t qualify for free legal help<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over the last few years, Green Street\u2019s reparations work has included music education for Black youth, funds for Black midwives<\/a> in Germantown and a new birthing center in Mount Airy, estate planning services<\/a>, and additional housing support.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want the reparations to just be about acknowledging a painful history,\u201d Grant, the reparations committee member, said. \u201cWe want it to be about what we can do now.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she used to think that reparations for Black Americans<\/a> would never happen.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s so wonderful to see and understand that, \u2018Oh, this has to happen on a local level,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n