Empower Homebuyers SCC, the down payment assistance program created by the County of Santa Clara and administered by us has already helped ten individuals and families buy their first home.
This Measure A-funded program was created to help first-time homebuyers earning up to 120% of the area median income – the ‘missing middle’ in terms of housing assistance. Kris Sanchez of NBC Bay Area provided a great summary of Empower Homebuyers SCC in a news report and so far the program has helped a schoolteacher, an education administrator, a home caregiver, and other neighbors realize the dream of owning a home.
One of the homebuyers is Alexa, a single mom who emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in her early teens and found a home in the Bay Area. After high school she began a career in manufacturing and eventually worked her way up to the role of supervisor – becoming a single mom to a son along the way. Before long rent was becoming a strain on finances and pressured her to move further from work – but she didn’t want her son to have to change schools and still wanted to stay close to extended family. She found Empower Homebuyers SCC with an online search and was ecstatic there was a way for her to afford a home – something she didn’t even think was possible.
After working with Housing Trust’s Homeownership Team and searching for weeks for the perfect home she found one in San Jose. Her co-workers, who had helped her move the last time, helped her move into her own home over the summer and her son started his senior year at the same school in the fall. “People always call it the American Dream. I am from Vietnam – what does that even mean? But now that I have a house I realize that is the dream,” Alexa told us. “If I put a hole in the wall to hang a picture a landlord isn’t going to make me pay for the wall. And I can plant a tree – I can do what I want!”
We’re happy to work with the County of Santa Clara and help longtime Bay Area renters become homeowners! Please visit our Empower Homebuyers SCC page for more details on the program – and look for the hashtag #EmpowerHomebuyersSCC on social media.