OPDC is happy to announce the receipt of two state grants totaling $225,000 to support homeownership for BIPOC communities and address blight in the Oakland community. The first, in the amount of $200,000, is from the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) fund at Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. This funding will allow OPDC to deploy a unique and creative approach to address historic racial disparities in homeownership rates by supporting Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) households to purchase homes through the Oakland Community Land Trust (CLT). BIPOC residents will receive funding and financial counseling.
The second, in the amount of $25,000 from the Commonwealth Financing Agency, through Department of Community and Economic Development blight remediation funds, will support predevelopment planning for OPDC to build new Oakland Community Land Trust homes on vacant properties we’ve assembled in the Oakcliffe neighborhood.
“We want to thank our elected officials, especially Senators Costa and Fontana, for their support in obtaining these grants for the Oakland community,” said Wanda Wilson, Executive Director of OPDC. “These grants will help us to achieve our vision of a vibrant Oakland where all of our neighbors thrive.”
“Home ownership is at the heart of the American dream, but that dream has been deferred for too many people through the last recession and then the pandemic,” Senator Wayne Fontana said in announcing the PHARE grants. “For many it’s simply the difficulty of navigating the complications of banking and real estate.” The PHARE grant will allow OPDC to build on its successful financial coaching and case management program to help BIPOC families achieve their dreams of owning a home.