Kamala Harris unveils economic plans for homeowners and new housing
The vice president will speak in North Carolina to promote a $25,000 loan for first-time home buyers.
Cheddar
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce a proposal to give first-time home buyers up to $25,000 as a down payment, part of an economic policy agenda the presidential candidate will unveil at an event in North Carolina today.
The proposed program may sound familiar to Detroiters, as a city program that gives residents up to $25,000 as a down payment on a home purchase serves as a model for the national initiative Harris plans to announce, according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
“I believe that first-time home buyers across the country should receive the same benefits as Detroit residents,” Duggan told the Free Press on Friday, noting that a federal version of the program would ensure it could continue in Detroit.
Duggan said Gene Sperling, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden and coordinator of the American Rescue Plan, came to a June press conference announcing the second round of the Detroit down payment program and took what he saw back to Washington, DC.
Duggan said Sperling called him earlier this week and told him that one of the Harris campaign’s first proposals was to make housing more affordable for first-time buyers, using the Detroit program as a model. Sperling will be a senior economic adviser to the Harris campaign, according to the Associated Press.
“He went back to Washington and said, ‘This is the simplest and most effective way to increase homeownership among low- and middle-income families,'” Duggan said.
Earlier this summer, the city announced it was resuming its down payment assistance program. The program, which originally launched last year, helped 434 residents become first-time homeowners with $12 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The second round will allow 300 Detroiters to apply. The next phase will be supported with $5 million from ARPA and $2 million from banks, philanthropic groups and Wayne County.
For Detroit’s down payment assistance program to continue, the city needs the national plan. Duggan said Detroit’s program was possible thanks to a combination of pandemic-related funds and help from banks, but the ARPA money has now run out.
“We didn’t have a plan for what we were going to do in 2025, but now we have a plan. We’ll just elect Kamala Harris president. The program will continue in Detroit and across America,” Duggan said.
Authorities touted the success of the first phase of the program. Applicants received an average of $24,582 in grants. The average home sale price was $112,000 and the average mortgage payment was $926. Nearly 94 percent of recipients are African American.
In June, Sperling said the Detroit program could serve as a national model.
“This is about families who pay their rent every month. Every month they work and meet their most important obligation – their rent – even when it’s too expensive,” he said at the time. “And what’s holding so many people back from converting their assets into a home that will give them equity and wealth is that they don’t have that extra $25,000 to spare.”
A 2021 analysis by the University of Michigan found that thousands of Detroiters wanted to buy a home between 2015 and 2019, but many ultimately failed to get a mortgage, highlighting the challenges city residents face when buying a home.
USA Today contributed to this report.
Contact Nushrat Rahman: [email protected]. Follow her on X: @NushratR.
