For over 30 years, Rose Gray, senior vice president of Community and Economic Development for Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha Inc. (APM), has partnered with families in Philadelphia to to help them become homeowners. In the following blog, she reflects on the housing market today, the systemic hurdles that block people from attaining the American Dream, and why homeownership remains a priority for APM.
Everyone who dreams of homeownership should have the opportunity to buy a home. The stabilizing impact of homeownership on communities, as well as its physical and emotional benefits for families, have been well-documented. Owning can be one of the few routes to building equity and generational wealth for working families, but in today’s housing market, people are being cut off from that quintessential American Dream.
When I started at Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) in 1990, Philly was badly lacking housing stock. Through the '60s and '70s, Philly and other cities took part in the Great Urban Renewal. In Philadelphia, it tore down buildings and houses, uprooting communities but ultimately didn’t prepare the city for future population growth. It was out of this upheaval that APM was founded by Puerto Rican social activists to connect Philly’s Latino community to new resources and opportunities.
Through the early ‘90s, APM conducted a strategic planning and listening tour to ground our work in the community’s needs and vision. Based on what we heard, APM set out to address Eastern North Philadelphia's desire for more affordable community housing, strengthening pathways to homeownership, and new access to shopping and food.
LISC, in fact, was a partner on some of our earliest projects: One APM Plaza and Two APM Plaza, which together created 36 new affordable rentals units, and Borinquen Plaza Retail Center, a 44,000-square-foot commercial space that is home to a supermarket and credit union. We ultimately built seven projects with rental units for 210 families.
As we started to focus on creating homeownership opportunities for residents in the early 2000s, we knew we would have to be patient. First, we had to build a housing market in Eastern North Philadelphia from scratch. Using discounted city land, we built 150 homes and sold them to families, the vast majority of which were making 80 percent or below the median income for the neighborhood. The houses were valued at $250,000 but were originally sold at a subsidized $50,000 - $85,000. We helped to develop a market that today, for better or worse, is booming. Many of the families who bought in the 2000s now have homes valued at over $300,000.
As we built, we needed to prepare families to become homeowners. When you talk about home ownership, people often forget that housing counseling is a long-term process, especially for people with low incomes or language barriers. It can take two or three years to prepare. The trust our counselors build with community members and the persistence the partnership cultivates leads to success.
In fact, that trust was crucial as COVID-19 bore down on Philly. Community members, including many working towards homeownership through our program, called us frantically, worried about being able to pay their rents as the economy collapsed. We had to respond.
Fortunately, a new grant from LISC and Ally Financial allowed us to nimbly shift to meet the emerging needs of the community. Six months before the pandemic arrived in Philly, we launched the Ally Signature Program to integrate our housing counseling workshops with financial coaching supports. It was a two-pronged strategy to prepare community members to buy a home and fortify families for the long-term financial realities of owning a home.
Once COVID descended, counselors expanded services beyond housing counseling to include housing stability. Their work ensured our residents were able to remain in their homes during an uncertain, turbulent time. Despite the economic downturn and a record-high housing market, over 40 of the families we worked with became homeowners over the past two years. We were ultimately able to connect 184 individuals and families to rental subsidies, support 106 applications for landlord support, and partner with 136 households to prevent eviction.
Having Ally’s support for the past three years has been critical. It enabled us to add the capacity our team needed to adapt through COVID and is helping us continue evolving with today’s housing market and uncertain economy. The market we helped to develop in Eastern North Philly has attracted private investors set on building condos selling for $400,000, far above what our community members can afford. To counteract this gentrification, we’re creating new partnerships with the City of Philadelphia and mission-aligned private developers to build more affordable homes for residents in the community. As the city invests in new homes with us and other partners, who will live there? There is going to be even more need to connect longtime residents and prospective homebuyers with the information and financial coaching our counselors can provide.
Many cities across the country are headed to a place where there will be no choice left for residents who want to own a home. That is my greatest fear for my city. This is why APM and our partners will do our all to continue adding new, affordable, and accessible homes in our community and make sure that families are equipped to remain in their new homes for years to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rose Gray, Senior Vice President, Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha Inc. (APM)
Rose Gray has been actively engaged in the revitalization of eastern North Philadelphia, leveraging more than $200 million in investments through her tenure at APM. Rose manages all aspects of APM’s community-based revitalization plan, from community organizing to planning and development. In addition to physical redevelopment work, Gray is responsible for APM’s rental and commercial portfolio and APM’s housing counseling program for families with low-to-moderate incomes.