WASHINGTON, DC—Despite the ongoing foreclosure crisis that is leading to millions of families losing their homes, it would be a mistake to eliminate homeownership for low- and moderate-income families as an achievable policy goal. On the contrary, we need not have a false debate about either going back to past homeownership strategies or abandoning a home of one’s own as an option for millions of working American families.
Shared Equity Homeownership programs, which have been pioneered by hundreds of local and state agencies and community groups, structure public assistance as an investment rather than a grant. This creates a more sustainable path to affordable housing. Families who buy their homes through Shared Equity Homeownership programs have a solid track record of very low default and foreclosure rates. These successes contrast with the outcomes for families who stayed in the predatory loan market, thus demonstrating that when a shared equity approach is coupled with appropriate financial products, homeownership can remain in the grasp of most Americans.
Sustainable homeownership, through shared equity or other means, provides owners real social and economic benefits and remains key to overcoming asset inequality.
Please join the Center for American Progress Action Fund and NCB Capital Impact as we discuss the future of homeownership and how Shared Equity Homeownership programs can put us in the right direction and provide a new way forward for federal homeownership policy.
CAP will also release a new report “A Path to Homeownership: Building A More Sustainable Strategy for Expanding Homeownership,” which is co-authored by CAP Senior Fellow David M. Abromowitz and Rick Jacobus.
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Opening remarks: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Introduction by: Sarah Rosen Wartell, Executive Vice President, Center for American Progress
Featured Panelists: John Barros, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Rick Jacobus, NCB Capital Impact
George McCarthy, Ford Foundation
Brenda Torpy, Champlain Housing Trust
Moderated by:
David Abromowitz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
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Coffee will be served at 8:30 a.m.
This event is co-sponsored with NCB Capital Impact