Before accepting a job offer from Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, chief program officer Shereese Turner asked friends what they knew about the home-building nonprofit.

She was stunned to find that many either knew nothing about Habitat or assumed they didn’t work with Black people.

“My peers said, ‘Don’t they just serve immigrants?’” Turner said.

This realization, along with persistent homeownership disparities in the Twin Cities, spurred Turner and her team to take a closer look at who the organization actually was serving. Looking through decades of data, they found Habitat had done a lot of good for East and West African immigrants, but that foundational Black people — those who can trace their lineage to U.S. slavery — frequently fell short of completing Habitat’s homebuying process.

Turner knew things had to change.

“We had some really harmful policies,” she said. “This was preventing us from seeing our foundational Black homebuyers get to the finish line.”

A new approach

Habitat for Humanity’s original model is known as “sweat equity,” which requires homeowners to spend as many as 500 hours working on their home or contributing to the organization’s mission in some other way.

Through racial-equity evaluation work that began in 2017, the Twin Cities chapter discovered sweat equity is a significant hurdle that many clients can’t overcome. They dropped the number of required hours to 100 and then paused the requirement entirely in 2020 because of health guidelines intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Danielle Duncan, director of equity and inclusion at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, said the pandemic presented another opportunity to step back and see how sweat equity presented major challenges for foundational Black families, who are their second-largest applicant pool.

“There are individuals or households who work and who … had to burn up their paid time off. When you’re talking about single moms and having to spend time with your family, all that PTO is gone,” Duncan said. “There was even a point where we had some households who no longer qualified (financially) because they had to utilize those hours for their sweat equity.”

To better meet the needs of foundational Black households, Twin Cities Habitat replaced its sweat equity program last year with “Volunteer and Learn,” Turner said. Instead of working on their homes, clients can take classes to develop their skills in painting, insulation and personal finance, and participate in community events that connect Habitat homeowners. While no longer a requirement, homeowners still can choose to work on their homes.

Common barriers

That and other policy changes were informed by the recommendations of an advisory council made up of Habitat homeowners and community members who identify as foundational Black households.

Monisha Washington, a community health worker, served on the council because she wanted to make the homebuying process easier for others. Washington sought Habitat’s help in 2019 and finally closed on an open-market house three years later. The journey wasn’t easy as Washington overcame student loan debt, a poor credit score and minimal savings — common barriers for Black families.

According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 43% of Black women and 32% of Black men who attended college have student loan debt, more than any other racial or gender group. Black Americans also are more likely to have credit scores below 670.

“I wanted to be a part of the advisory to really tell them, from a cultural standpoint, what would make the process easier for other foundational Black families who are looking to become homeowners,” Washington said. “A lot of the times, we’re not taught how to save [or taught] financial wellness skills.”

The council’s feedback led to the creation of the Advancing Black Homeownership Program, which provides cohort support, more flexible underwriting criteria and additional financial assistance to foundational Black Americans who want to buy a home.

Progress on racial equity

The racial homeownership gap in the Twin Cities is among the worst in the nation, with 77% of white families owning their own home compared to just 29% of Black families, according to the Minnesota Housing Partnership.

Habitat’s new approach is making a difference, though. Foundational Black households now make up 22% of Twin Cities Habitat’s homebuyers, a stark increase from 8% in 2019.

Turner said the nonprofit will continue to evolve to better meet the specific needs of foundational Black people to create more equitable homeownership in the region.

“The reality is that when you understand who is the most marginalized, disenfranchised group who’s having no success in our program, when you understand their barriers and you fix that, it’s a win for everybody else,” she said.

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