Doug Cupid and his wife Vanessa, both in their 40s, have been renting since moving to Sacramento nearly nine years ago. They never really expected to own a home, even though that’s the way families typically build wealth.
“We thought we were going to be lifelong renters,” said Doug, a photographer. But when Vanessa did a stint working in property management, she said she realized how little control renters have over their housing, and the couple determined to become homeowners.
They were among 25 people who graduated Friday from CLTRE Keeper, a new city-funded program that prepares low-income people from disadvantaged neighborhoods to become homeowners.
The program was funded with $500,000 from the City of Sacramento to support communities near the new UC Davis Aggie Square innovation campus on Stockton Boulevard.
“These are people who have lived in our community for 30 years and never had the opportunity to own anything,” said CLTRE Keeper Program Manager Ashley Garner.
The City and UC Davis are contributing a total of $10 million for anti-displacement activities, including emergency rent assistance, home repairs and utility upgrades, among other things. So far, $2 million of the money has been allocated.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg and former Councilmember Jay Schenirer attended the event Friday evening celebrating the participants’ completion of the program.
Jay Schenirer speaks at CLTRE graduation
“Meeting some of you, and knowing that you’re soon going to be homeowners in our neighborhoods is the greatest holiday gift that anybody who does what we do could ask for,” Steinberg said.
The 25 CLTRE Keeper participants were chosen from a pool of 367 applicants from the priority zip codes in and around the Stockton Boulevard corridor. For the past eight weeks, they have learned how to choose, finance and maintain a home.
In addition to these lessons, they will receive $17,500 to help with a down payment and credit repair. A group of banks is also assisting with financing.
“This is keeping culture in our neighborhoods though (home) ownership,” said Roshaun Davis, whose non-profit, ClTRE, ran the CLTRE Keeper program.
The motivation, Davis said Friday, is to “make sure our people get into places that allow them to have a better life.”
Davis said CLTRE recently was awarded a $150,000 grant by Bridge Housing to replicate the CLTRE Keeper homeownership program for residents of north Sacramento neighborhoods around Del Paso Boulevard.