Release date: 7/8/2024

Contact:
Kim Marshall
202-760-4054
[email protected]

Native communities have worst access to homeownership assistance

Washington D.C. — NeighborWorks America's new survey revealed a strong majority of Americans would be interested in working with homeownership counseling organizations during the homebuying process, including for services for accessing affordable loan products and services (70%), and for improving credit scores (67%), similar to rates reported by American Indian respondents (69% and 73% respectively).

However, when asked to describe access to organizations that offer homeownership services in the area where they live, Native American respondents were the demographic group most likely to rate their access as fair or poor for each of the services listed. For example, Native American adults were more likely to describe their access to down payment assistance programs as fair or poor (40%) compared to white adults (33%) and Black adults (31%).

"We must be honest," said Mel Willie, senior director of Native Strategy & Partnerships at NeighborWorks America, "centuries of displacement and forced assimilation have plagued Native communities. Building trust is a critical factor. And trust is essential when engaging in conversations in the homebuying buying process. That is why NeighborWorks centers this Native partnership work and why this work focuses on building trust."

A cornerstone to the NeighborWorks Native strategy and partnership work is building mutually beneficial partnerships between NeighborWorks network organizations and Native communities. In Wyoming, a NeighborWorks network organization created a partnership with the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Housing Authority and the Wind River Development Fund to provide a homeownership counselor who will provide culturally appropriate homeownership education training and counseling to Native customers throughout the state. NeighborWorks helped foster and provide support to strengthen that connection — leveraging its resources with established organizations in the Native community.

Learn more about how NeighborWorks partners with and supports Native communities:

• Developing and launching successful outreach strategies to get communities of color critical information about renting and homeownership options.
• Delivering a comprehensive suite of training resources and opportunities for Indigenous communities.
• Increasing the accessibility to classes and resources available in a wide variety of languages, including American Sign Language.
• Partnering with organizations like the American Bankers Association to promote homeownership education and counseling.

About NeighborWorks America
Celebrating 45 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a national, nonpartisan nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Our network of excellence includes nearly 250 nonprofits in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and on Native lands. NeighborWorks offers grant funding, peer exchange, technical assistance, evaluation tools and access to best-in-class training as the nation's leading trainer of housing and community development professionals. NeighborWorks network organizations provide residents in their communities with affordable homes, owned and rented; financial counseling and coaching; community building through resident engagement; and collaboration in the areas of health, employment and education.


About NeighborWorks America's survey
Methodology: This poll was conducted between May 14 - May 26, 2024, among a sample of 5,204 adults. The weighting scheme used involved a two-stage weighting system. Oversamples of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indians were initially weighted to their respective population proportions on age, gender, and education. Then those first-stage weights were filtered into the general population weights and the whole adult sample was weighted on age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and region to match national proportions for the U.S. The interviews were conducted online. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage points.