How the LIFT Act Can Make Homeownership, and Strong Communities, a Reality for More Americans
In an op-ed for The Virginian-Pilot, LISC Virginia executive director Jane Ferrara lays out the ways the proposed LIFT Act could make homeownership, at 20-year, fixed rate mortgages, accessible to first-time, first-generation buyers—the very people who are often edged out of the American Dream. The legislation, in partnership with home-buying programs like the ones LISC leads, Ferrara writes, can help “bridge the racial wealth gap as well as the gap between dreams and reality for the next generation of aspiring homeowners.”
The op-ed below was originally published by The Virginian-Pilot:
Opinion: LIFT Act can boost homeownership, strengthen communities
With higher interest rates and unaffordable housing prices, the American dream continues to be out of reach for far too many Virginians. Millennials who are able to purchase homes are older on average than first-time home buyers of previous generations. If we don’t act to make homeownership more accessible, this trend could be even worse for Generation Z. This challenge is particularly true for Black and Hispanic families given the unacceptable racial wealth gap that remains a legacy of discrimination.
I’m proud to lead LISC Virginia, the Central Virginia office of the nation’s largest community development organization, which works to forge resilient and inclusive communities that are great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. For more than 30 years, we have worked with community organizations to revitalize under-served Richmond-area neighborhoods through catalyzed investment, physical improve-ments, safer streets and highly engaged residents. We support community development organizations with grants, loans and expertise to help them construct affordable homes, community facilities and activated storefronts in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Through this work, we’ve seen how homeownership can make a meaningful difference in the fabric of a community. Research shows that stable housing that allows families to have a long-term stake in their com-munity leads to greater educational achievement, more civic participation, greater health outcomes and lower crime. As homeowners build equity, they build wealth that can be used to make home repairs and improve-ments, start a business or fund education.
That’s why we are leading the RVA Wealth Opportunities Realized Through Homeownership (WORTH) initiative to expand homeownership opportunities for Black, Hispanic, and other underserved individuals and families with the goal of creating 5,000 new homeowners of color in central Virginia by the end of 2025. This regional plan involves partnering with local affordable housing developers, lenders and service providers to build an ecosystem free from the historic barriers to homeownership that many of our residents have experi-enced. Through a $7.5 million grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation, the WORTH initiative funds increased access to flexible, affordable mortgage products, comprehensive housing outreach and education campaigns, innovations that enhance capacity to deliver more housing stock, and advocacy for policies that address systemic barriers impacting homeownership.
Now, LISC is expanding our reach and focus to these same issues in the Hampton Roads region, opening a LISC Hampton Roads office in 2020 with financial backing from Sentara Health. In just this short time, LISC Hampton Roads has already invested more than $4 million in the Hampton Roads region. For example, last year, LISC Hampton Roads closed a $450,000 loan for the acquisition and redevelopment of Newport Gardens in Norfolk’s Park Place neighborhood, which will consist of 50 apartment homes and will serve residents making between 40-80% of the area median income.
However, non-profit organizations can’t do this work alone. It also takes policies that proactively address the root of the wealth gap that exists. The LIFT Act from U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine builds on our approach to accelerating wealth opportunity at the national level. The bill would establish a program to sponsor low fixed-rate 20-year mortgages for first-time, first-generation homebuyers who have incomes equal to or less than 120% of their area median income. This would allow a borrower with a LIFT loan to build equity more than twice as fast, helping to unlock the door to financial security and stability for those who have historically been marginalized from this opportunity.
The LIFT Act is an innovative strategy for communities across the country and here in Virginia, helping to bridge the racial wealth gap, as well as the gap between dreams and reality for the next generation of aspiring homeowners. We need creative solutions for complex problems, and that’s exactly what our senators have delivered. Warner and Kaine’s LIFT Act is a starting point for meaningful action.
About the Author
Jane Ferarra, LISC Virgina Executive Director
Jane is an experienced, committed professional with a record of high-impact accomplishments. Beginning her career in commercial real estate in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, she later relocated to Richmond to serve as Managing Director and partner of Advantis Real Estate Services Company. Jane left the private sector in 2005 to join the City of Richmond under Mayor Douglas Wilder’s administration. She spent the next fourteen years leading the City’s real estate, economic development, and business attraction activities and had the opportunity to travel while marketing the City to business and industry. She was named as one of the Top 20 Women in Commercial Real Estate by Richmond CREWE in 2009.
Jane was selected by Richmond’s current Mayor to serve as a fellow for the Daniel Rose Fellowship for Public Leaders, a partnership of the Urban Land Institute and the National League of Cities. She was also appointed by the Governor of Virginia to serve on the business development and marketing advisory committee for the Virginia Economic Development