USBC Partners with City of Albuquerque to Increase Black Homeownership

United South Broadway Corporation has joined the City of Albuquerque in an initiative to increase Black homeownership. In the short term, the City seeks to increase Black homeownership by 5% over the next 12 months, adding 41 new Black homeowners during that time.

USBC is working with the City’s Office of Black Community Engagement (OBCE) to reach out to prospective homeowners and provide HUD-certified pre-purchase housing counseling.

“Talking to a counselor first when you want to buy a home will help you figure out if you’re really ready to buy, and how much home you can afford,” says Elaine Candelaria, USBC’s Housing Program Manager.

“You can also find out how to become mortgage-ready. That way, you get on a real path to homeownership before you even start looking at homes.”

Housing counseling is free, and includes information on the following services:

Down payment options and local down payment assistance programs.
The types of mortgages available.
How to overcome common barriers such as low income, bad credit or no credit and high credit card debt.
What to expect from your real estate agent and your lender.
How to make a step-by-step action plan based on your personal financial situation.

The homeownership initiative is the result of a 2022 Housing Equity Needs Assessment showing that prospective Black borrowers are more than twice as likely as prospective White borrowers to be denied home loans in Albuquerque.

The difference in the value of homes owned by race is staggering, according to the report. Black homeowners in Albuquerque own only $1 in home equity for every $35 in home equity owned by Whites. The housing wealth gap has a long history in the city, dating to the mid-1900s when racially restrictive covenants segregated neighborhoods. These covenants restricted homeownership for people of color to specific neighborhoods, and effectively directed public investment dollars away from these neighborhoods. The report concludes that Albuquerque’s regional economy could be nearly $11 billion stronger if the racial wealth gap was closed.

For a brief history of African-Americans in Albuquerque, click here.

Albuquerque was selected for the homeownership project by the Opportunity Accelerator, a national collaboration helping cities to promote economic mobility, reduce racial disparities and improve the lives of their residents.