SAN DIEGO — Many people gathered at the Sherman Heights Community Center Wednesday afternoon to celebrate a multi-million-dollar Wells Fargo grant awarded to the San Diego Housing Commission to help people of color become homeowners in San Diego.
"September 21, 2022, will be "Home Ownership Equity Day' in the City of San Diego! Congratulations," cheered Monica Montgomery Steppe, Councilmember for District 4.
An expanded effort to help more people of color in San Diego become homeowners launched with the support of a $7.5 million grant from the Wells Fargo foundation.
"It's important to Wells Fargo. This is one of our signature grants that we are proud of. It's fantastic work in the community and will help close the racial home ownership gap," said Wesley Brooks, Home Ownership Lead at Wells Fargo.
Only 29% of homes are owned by black families while 35% of homes are owned by Latino families in comparison to nearly 55% of homes owned by white families according to a San Diego Housing Commission Urban Institute study.
"We want you here because diversity is the strength of this city and home ownership is the power that helps provide the stability the city needs to move forward. So again, thank you to Wells Fargo," said Mayor Todd Gloria to the crowd.
The grant comes from Wells Fargo’s Wealth Opportunity Resorted Though Home ownership or “WORTH” initiative, a $60 million national effort to address systematic barriers to home ownership for people of color.
"There are systemic barriers to closing the racial wealth gap. When we heard from the housing commission in-depth detailed knowledge of what some of the barriers were, and comprehensive strategies of how they were going to address those barriers, it became a no brainer to fund that," said Brooks.
"I’m so proud. We are 1 out of 8 municipalities chosen nationwide of dispersing the $7.5 million," said Montgomery Steppe. "We were taught growing up that home ownership is important. We see the gaps in our communities. People can think it's unattainable and it's not. We are trying to increase the amount of housing."
Wells Fargo also recently launched a special credit program to help eligible minority homeowners to lower their interest rates and reduce monthly mortgage payments.
"For black people, there is a double standard. We, as a city and as a nation, are facing it for what it is. It is disparity and discrimination, and we can right with that wrong," said Montgomery Steppe.
This funding is expected to change the lives of 5,000 families of color in San Diego by 2025 by helping them with home ownership, while WORTH aims to help 40,000 new homeowners of color nationally by the end of 2025.
WATCH RELATED: Controversial multi-unit housing project completed in Talmadge (September 2022)