“It Was God-Led”: Fifty DC Churches Join Forces to Turn Renters Into Black Homeowners

• About 50 churches formed the Black Equity Through Homeownership alliance in Washington, DC
• Plans include affordable homes, repair funds for inherited property and buyer workshops
• First Rock Baptist Church built 15 homes and a senior centre with more than 70 units
• One homeowner says she bought with a $500 contribution after the church covered her down payment

Around 50 churches in Washington, DC have formed an alliance with a blunt goal: help Black families own homes in a city where they are being priced out. The Washington Informer reported that Black Equity Through Homeownership, linked to the Washington Interfaith Network, plans to build affordable homes, create repair funds for inherited properties, run homeownership workshops and push for affordable housing policy.

The churches point to a stark gap. A typical white household in DC had a net worth of $284,000, compared with $3,500 for Black households, according to 2013–14 figures cited in the report. “The story of the United States of America is a story of land,” said the Rev William Lamar of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. “Natives had it, but by violence, by lie, by law, through policy, a people killed and took what they wanted.”

Some congregations have done this before. First Rock Baptist Church in Southeast DC, led by the Rev Anthony Minter, who co-chairs the Washington Interfaith Network, built 15 homes and a senior centre with more than 70 units in Benning Ridge between the early 1990s and 2004. Barbra Leathers bought one of those homes at 28 with a $500 contribution, the church having covered her down payment. “It was amazing. It was God-led because there was no way I thought about being a homeowner,” she said.

The alliance is aimed at what it calls average people, including police officers, teachers and longtime residents. Curtis “Coach Peedy” Monroe summed up the problem: “I’ve been interested in homeownership for 10 years, but I feel stuck because of my salary. I’m not sure where to start.” The group also wants to help families keep inherited homes, as when Randolph Davis sold an inherited property to his 24-year-old son below market rate.

The model will be familiar to Jamaicans at home and abroad. Greater Washington has a sizeable Caribbean community, and in Jamaica churches have long been a trusted first stop for savings, advice and land. Pooled church effort on down payments, repairs to family property and buyer education is exactly what many diaspora and returning families need, particularly where inherited land lacks clear title and repairs are left undone.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com