DETROIT – Rocket Mortgage is launching a new program aimed at helping some of the country’s most renter-rich cities become places for thriving homeowners.
The program is called “The Rocket Wealth Accelerator” and comes with a partnership with Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC), a non-profit that supports local programs across the country.
“It’s not so much understanding the movement of money it’s the steps of what it takes to become a homeowner,” said Rocket Community Fund’s National Director of Housing Rob Lockett. RCF is the charity and community outreach arm of Rocket Mortgage.
Money is matched dollar for dollar for two groups, those who want to start saving for a home in the long run and those who need some financial stability first. $500 matching will be available for the first group and $300 for the second. Those who sign up will also be given a three-month trial for the Rocket Money app, formerly TrueBill, which helps track spending habits.
“We want to make sure that individuals are stable first before that start that journey into home ownership,” said Lockett.
The pilot program will set aside $2 million to be split among four cities: Milwaukee, WI, Atlanta, GA, Cleveland, OH and Detroit. It comes at a crucial time for Detroit. Which just this year became a city that was majority homeowners for the first time in a decade.
The cities also have high Black populations, particularly Detroit which is majority Black. Those cities have also been plagued by decades of systematic racism which has locked out minority families from owning their own homes.
“One of our goals is to dismantle those systems that have historically kept people from buying and achieving wealth through home ownership,” Lockett said.
It’s for those reasons that the program holds a special place of pride for Lockett.
“For me being African-American but also being able to affect the financial futures and outcomes of many thousands of people,” Lockett said.
The program has only just gotten its financial legs underneath it, according to Lockett. RCF is expected to start taking applications starting in early 2023.
Click here for more information on the program.
If you are looking to get connected to the funds mentioned above, call one of the three numbers below:
- International Institute of Detroit
- (313) 871-8600
- Ser-Metro Detroit
- 313-945-5200, option 5
- Wayne Metro Community Action Agency
- (313) 388-9799