SUSAN KELLY IS A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CREDIT COUNSELOR FOR DOLLAR BANK. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
More African Americans taking advantage of Dollar Bank’s programs
Five thousand dollars towards a down payment on a home.
It’s all yours. All you have to do is desire to become a first-time homebuyer, which, for many African Americans, sounds like music to their ears, and participate in Dollar Bank’s “The Way Home” program and follow the bank’s qualifications.
Ondrea Taylor, 30, who is Black, told the New Pittsburgh Courier she can hear the music. She’s in the process of purchasing a home that Taylor and her two children will enjoy.
“I’m tired of renting,” she said. “It’s just too hard to find a place, and they have all these rules when it’s not yours…it’s just a hassle to not own a home.”
Taylor told the Courier the final straw was when she rented a residence from a private owner, who assured her that there were no issues with rodents or other creatures. One week later, Taylor was out of there, after finding out the place was infested with roaches.
Taylor moved back in with her mother for a time to get back on her feet. When she went to her job, she would hear about co-workers purchasing homes. “I just heard about the processes and everybody successfully doing what they had to do to get these homes, and that’s what really triggered something in me. ‘You know what? I probably can buy a house if everybody else is doing it.'”
LYNNE HAYES-FREELAND HOSTED A DOLLAR BANK FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER EVENT IN MAY 2024. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Taylor has been a Dollar Bank customer since 2012, and she heard about “The Way Home,” the Dollar Bank homeownership program that assists low-to-moderate income individuals in the Pittsburgh region who want to own a home for the first time. Taylor filled out the “intake form” in December 2023, a form that Dollar Bank requires individuals to complete, which details a person’s employment status, social security number, etc.
KELLY BOWMAN IS A DOLLAR BANK COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CREDIT COUNSELOR.
Susan Kelly, a Community Development Credit Counselor for Dollar Bank, then called Taylor and told her she was accepted into the program.
Taylor is not alone. While the program is open to all races, all ethnicities, African Americans across the Pittsburgh region are really dialed into Dollar Bank’s program because it offers $5,000 towards the down payment of a person’s first home upon successful completion of its homeownership program. Oftentimes, it’s the down payment that prevents many African Americans from homeownership.
“I do believe we are one of the only banks that offer in-house credit counseling, helping our clients either repair or rebuild their credit; we also help them with budgeting and preparing for a down payment; the mortgage application; and then preparing them for homeownership,” Kelly told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, July 11.
The notion that everyone is just supposed to “know” all the steps to purchasing a home is wrong, Kelly said. While 44 percent of African Americans own their homes across the U.S., in Pittsburgh, the percent drops to 31. And oftentimes, it’s generational. When a person raises a family in a home that they don’t own, then when the person passes away, the home cannot be transferred to the children. This happens a lot in Black families.
ANDREA VASQUEZ, VICE PRESIDENT, DOLLAR BANK GROUP, BANKING (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
For Taylor, she told the Courier her grandmother was the only person she knew in her family that she interacts with on a regular basis who owns their home. Taylor said she grew up on the East End, and graduated from Peabody High School in 2011, all while living in rented residences.
“If somebody would have asked me five years ago” about if Taylor could be a homeowner, “I would have said no,” she told the Courier.
But she said she was inspired by her grandmother to throw her hat in the homeowners’ ring. “Also, my children, they’re getting older, they can’t keep sharing a room. It was just the right timing,” Taylor told the Courier, July 15.
TESTIMONIAL FROM DOLLAR BANK HOMEOWNER CARLA SMITH
Since January 2024, Taylor has been in the Dollar Bank “The Way Home” homeownership program. With Kelly by her side, Taylor has undergone the financial wellness classes, the budgeting classes, followed the “action plan,” and told the Courier she’s only a few weeks away from closing on her home if all goes as planned.
JASON JONES, VP, DOLLAR BANK COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ON BUDGETING AND SAVINGS
Much of the down payment for her home was covered by the $5,000 that Dollar Bank provides the individuals in the program. Kelly said to qualify, the individual in the program must accumulate at least $1,000 saved in a special Dollar Bank savings account that can’t be touched without approval from the Dollar Bank credit counselor. Kelly said that instead of the minimum $1,000, most individuals will have about $3,000-$4,000 saved up at the time of closing on the home in the Dollar Bank special savings account, and when Dollar Bank adds in their $5,000 via its “5 to 1” savings program, a down payment now becomes $8,000 or more. Also, with Dollar Bank’s “Rent No More” program, one can get into a home for as little as three percent down with no Primary Mortgage Insurance and no minimum credit score.
Generally, when African Americans come into homeownership, their wealth increases. Once a home is owned and even paid off, all that’s legally needed to be paid on the home is property taxes. This helps other family members live in the home “rent-free,” in a sense, thus giving people a chance to save more money for a down payment on their own home. Or the home could be sold down the line, with the chance that the homeowner could get more money on the sale than what they originally paid for it.
TESTIMONIAL FROM DOLLAR BANK HOMEOWNER BRIAN PARRISH
The Dollar Bank “The Way Home” homeownership program does require individuals to make at least $26,000 in annual income. As they progress through the program, and when the individual gets closer to the “pre-approved for a home” status, the individual will be invited to the Dollar Bank offices to take part in a two-day workshop where presenters discuss those crucial next steps before homeownership. Individuals hear from the mortgage department, a real estate agent, home inspector, and representatives from the homeowners insurance and title companies.
“I’ve seen people that have completely shocked me, that I thought for sure were going to be in the program for at least nine to 10 months, and they were pre-approved (for a home) within four months,” Kelly told the Courier. “They were determined to turn their credit around, get their savings in place and move forward.”
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