Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Atlanta will be the recipients of a new $2 million effort to help low-income Black residents build savings, buy homes, and improve their credit.
The assistance will come from the Rocket Wealth Accelerator Program, and the Rocket Community Fund (RCF) will finance it. RCF is uniting with Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) on the just-announced push.
Organizers say it will start next summer and provide coaches to help residents improve their ability to meet
emergency needs, build their credit scores, and grow generational wealth. During the next year, LISC staff will onboard and train coaches, connect with community members eager to build savings, set up incentive programming, and develop the needed infrastructure to launch the program in each market through local community partners.Moreover, the program pledges to provide matching dollars for participants’ savings plans. That includes up to $500 for people with large-dollar goals like buying a home or vehicle and up to $300 for those looking to grow their emergency or short-savings accounts.
While open to any income-qualified family, the accelerator is primarily geared to address systemic racism and racial injustices that have crushed Black wealth. It has been reported that about half of all Black and Hispanic households are unbanked or underbanked. Plus, Black Americans are twice as likely to be denied credit.
The accelerator hopes to help residents become homeowners, combating a Black-white homeownership gap that’s larger today than when race-based discrimination against homebuyers was legal.
“The Rocket Wealth Accelerator is a small step toward leveling the playing field for Black and minority families who have endured a system that prevents them from accumulating wealth, or passing that wealth onto the next generation,” stated Laura Grannemann, vice president of RCF.
LISC CEO Lisa Glover added, “Our partnership is exactly the kind of investment in economic empowerment that can help close our country’s widening wealth gaps and equip more families of color to build generational wealth.”
Over the next three years, the accelerator hopes to achieve many goals including: serve more than 2,000 clients, of which 80% are people of color; have 1,000 clients create a spending plan with their financial coaches, building their financial know-how, and creating savings goals; help 500 clients in increasing their credit scores and work with 750 clients to boost short-term savings.
To view additional comments and learn more about the program, visit here.