City Council member Ju'Coby Pittman applauds a $2 million pilot program that will provide down payment assistance for home buyers in Duval County on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Jacksonville's Talleyrand neighborhood. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on March 7, 2024 at 5:54 pm
The city of Jacksonville announced a pilot program Thursday that will help working class people with down payment assistance to buy a home anywhere in Duval County.
Mayor Donna Deegan said the city will provide first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to buy a home that is no more than $335,000.
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The $2 million initiative is a pilot program that will use funding from the current fiscal year. It is not recurring. It is among the initiatives the Deegan administration has pushed to solve the city’s affordable housing crisis.
“This is just one tool in the shed, but a very important one for allowing people who make too much money to qualify for federal assistance,” Deegan said. “That’s where you see, really, the longest lines is that you have this federal assistance program. But, then you have so many people who are just above that. So, this is an important gap we’re trying to fill here.”
Applicants must make less than 120% of the area’s median income to qualify. For a family of four in Duval County, 120% of the area median income is $106,200.
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The city also has a Head Start to Homeownership program where it uses federal funds to provide up to $50,000 in subsidies for down payments and closing costs for people who earn between 80% percent and 120% of the area median income.
The program Deegan championed Thursday will exclusively use city dollars. The city’s program will provide up to 75% of the total down payment and closing costs for a buyer.
Travis Jeffrey, chief of the city’s Housing and Community Development Division, said applicants should apply for a mortgage through one of the 13 lenders who have already been approved through the city’s Headstart to Homeownership program.
“With (these) new funds that we have, we’re looking to service about 200 more clients,” Jeffrey said. “Hopefully, we can push through that money and then we’ll get some additional funding once these funds are expended.”
Jeffrey said mortgage applicants can pair funds from the city’s down payment assistance program with other assistance either from lenders or the federal government. He adds that they are deferred payment loans, so if an applicant remains in their home for a period of time, the down payment assistance will be forgiven.
Joshua Hicks, the city’s director of affordable housing, said Jacksonville needs 35,000 affordable housing homes or residences if it’s to equal current demand.
Thursday’s press event was held less than two miles from where Attorney General Merrick Garland accused Ameris Bank of redlining in predominantly Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville — like the Eastside — last year.
“Some of the banks have come to us on that issue,” Deegan said. “I think accountability is going to be very important on that front. I think there are people who are very, very incentivized to show that they are not discriminating.”
Ameris is one of the 13 banks that participates in the Head Start to Homeownership program. Hicks said the city will track the demographics of who receives down payment assistance and which parts of town they are buying homes in
“We’re going to have to, because this is a pilot program, have to go back in front of this council, whether in July or whenever, and show the success of this program, who it’s helping (and) provide that data when we’re talking about future funding,” Hicks said.
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors reported that median price for a single-family home sold in Duval County in January was $320,000. That is a $12,000 increase, or 3.9%, from January 2023.
Thursday’s announcement was made in front of a three-bedroom that JWB Real Estate recently developed in the Talleyrand neighborhood.
Nearby homes were built as early as the 1940s. There are other parcels that have been purchased by licensed limited corporations and others that are vacant.
The 32206 ZIP code has a 38.8% homeownership rate, which is nearly 20 percentage points below Jacksonville’s 57.9% homeownership rate.
City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman not only represents Talleyrand, Norwood and other neighborhoods on the Eastside but has generational roots Out East.
“As you all know, affordable housing means different things to different people,” Pittman said. “To be able to have a program that is for grassroots people who want to continue to stay in the neighborhoods that they grew up in — and that there is a real commitment and not just talk. …We have so many issues, but we got to start (by) having a home where you can lay your head, that you can be proud of (and) that you can raise your family.”
Lead image: City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman applauds a $2 million pilot program that will provide down payment assistance for home buyers in Duval County on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Jacksonville’s Talleyrand neighborhood. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
