New American Funding Empowers Fair Housing
Homeownership is a dream that many Americans work hard to achieve. It can be one of the most rewarding dreams and one of the most challenging. In the U.S., where so many different cultures and communities coexist, the pathway to your dreams can look different based on which community you’re a part of. New American Funding is an intentional leader in fair housing practices. We have in-house experience with and knowledge of the different barriers that underserved communities face when it comes to lending.
Founded by leaders who understand firsthand what it is like to struggle to build a life in this country, NAF was built with diversity and inclusion in mind. From intentionally hiring an internal community of diverse employees to crafting programs and products to empower marginalized borrowers, NAF is committed to serving underserved communities, in particular the Black and Latino communities.
Black and Latino homebuyers face many community-specific barriers to housing. These barriers can take many forms including socioeconomic limitations, implicit biases in lending practices, open discrimination, or simply a lack of resources and education. NAF has two initiatives that we designed to clearly address these different barriers.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of our Latino Focus Initiative. Under the leadership of Caroline Isern, Latino Focus is a 50+ member strong group of caring people who are creating a multifaceted strategy that seeks to clearly identify the challenges facing Latino homebuyers and produce solutions to those challenges.
Our vision is to empower our Hispanic community by bringing cultural awareness, recruiting top Hispanic talent, and creating change through our actions—all while reminding our Latinos that the journey of homeownership is full of hope and possibility.
In 2016, NAF created the New American Dream Initiative to serve Black homebuyers. New American Dream, which is led by John Drumgoole, is about passion and people, combining hard work, integrity, a team effort, and continuous learning to increase the rate of Black Homeownership in America. Our purpose is to provide racial equity and build consumer confidence through home buying education, accessibility to credit, and mortgage industry career opportunity awareness to Black communities.
Both of these initiatives are focused on creating opportunities, spreading knowledge, and actively building the structures and providing the resources that marginalized borrowers need to become successful homeowners.
We focus on community representation and connection by hiring mortgage professionals from the communities we are serving. We are building partnerships with other organizations, like nonprofits, to provide education on subjects such as wealth building.
NAF has also created products to address certain financial barriers to homeownership like credit and income limitations. Two of these programs are:
Uqual – If your credit score isn’t quite high enough to qualify for a loan, we have partnered with Uqual to help coach you through the steps necessary to raise your score. And once you’re ready, we’ll be here to help you with your loan.
Pathway to Homeownership – Everyone deserves the chance to build wealth by owning their own home. With the Pathway to Homeownership program, first-time homebuyers, in select areas, may be eligible for up to $8,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance!
Ensuring fair housing empowers individuals and their families for generations to come. Not only does it allow people to put down their own roots, but it enables them to grow their communities by giving them the stability and security they need to support their families and friends. NAF believes in the power of growing together.
To learn more about what NAF can offer you, contact us today. One of our loan advisors will be happy to answer your questions.