Rocket Mortgage Wants To Help More People Become Homeowners With New Program.
If you’re looking to start the new year off becoming a homeowner you may be in luck. In order to help some of the country’s renter-rich cities become homeowner-friendly, Rocket Mortgage has launched a new program. Its name is “The Rocket Wealth Accelerator” and it is a partnership with Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC), a non-profit organization that supports local programs across the country. Rob Lockett, Rocket Community Fund’s National Director of Housing said, “It’s not so much understanding the movement of money it’s the steps of what it takes to become a homeowner. We want to make sure that individuals are stable first before that start that journey into home ownership.” The program works by matching dollar for dollar the savings of two groups: those who need financial stability before saving for a home and those who want to start saving for a home. There will be a $500 match available for the first group and a $300 match available for the second. In addition, the Rocket Money app, formerly TrueBill, which helps track spending habits, will be available for three months for free for new members.
Among the four cities that will participate in the pilot program are Milwaukee, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Detroit. It’s no coincidence that the four chosen cities are some the most heavily populated black cities in the US. Additionally, because those cities have been plagued by decades of systematic racism that has stopped minority families from owning their own homes. Rocket Mortgage and Rob Lockett would like to change that. When asked about why helping these predominantly black cities was important to him, he replied, “For me being African-American but also being able to affect the financial futures and outcomes of many thousands of people. One of our goals is to dismantle those systems that have historically kept people from buying and achieving wealth through home ownership.”
According to Lockett, the program is just getting its financial legs under it. Starting in early 2023, the RCF will begin accepting applications.