When Erin Battle thinks about being in her home for the holidays, her eyes moisten.

Each sunrise brings Battle one day closer to her dream of homeownership. She is a Jacksonville native who grew up on the Eastside, moved to the Northside and graduated from Ribault High School. She is entrenched here and will establish roots in her hometown through the Project Boots initiative.

Ameris Bank is the latest institution to invest in the Project Boots program. This week, the Atlanta-based bank awarded $50,000 to help Project Boots expand its financial and educational efforts to foster homeownership in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Project Boots is a collaboration between nonprofits LISC Jacksonville and LIFT Jax that seeks to raise homeownership in majority Black neighborhoods by providing down payment assistance for homeowners and homeownership training sessions.

The next Project Boots class will begin in January 2025. Applications for the program are still being accepted.

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A dream of homeownership

Battle was among five people in the first cohort. Construction of her home on the Eastside should finish by the end of the year.

“Hopefully … I can leave some type of nest egg for my son,” Battle says, referencing the unprecedented public and private investment on the Eastside. “Just being a homeowner during this era, at this time Out East, I think that will prepare him for something in his backpack, so to speak, that I don’t know if I would have been able to do without being a part of this group.”

Ameris’ funding was part of a settlement between the institution and the U.S. Justice Department last year after the latter accused the lender of redlining.

Ameris’ director of community lending, Clyde Anderson, says LISC’s nationwide network of community engagement, as well as LISC Jacksonville’s work on the Eastside, appealed to Ameris.

Anderson has spent nearly a quarter century as a lender in Atlanta. He’s witnessed the gentrification there, as well as the effect a professional sports facility has on the urban neighborhood that surrounds it.

“When you start seeing some of the opportunities, and some of the areas in communities, the proximity of (Downtown),” Anderson says. “You look at the stadium, you look at some of the things that are sprouting up, you look at some of the structures, Out East is prime. … There is money being invested. Ameris recognized all of those things. And, we wanted to have a seat at the table to make sure that we could facilitate and foster what was coming.”

The redlining settlement

The federal settlement called for Ameris to create community partnerships.

Since its creation in 2021, Project Boots has helped nearly a dozen families through down payment assistance as well as a 10-month program that provides information on how homeowners can best utilize their investment.

Battle says her cohort learned about investments, credit repair, horticulture and more.

“It was massive. It was a wealth of knowledge,” Battle says. “I would love to work with (other) cohorts … because it just did something for me.”

Initially, the focus was on the Eastside.  

However, Irvin “PeDro” Cohen says the prospect of development at and around EverBank Stadium has raised the price of empty lots on the Eastside. Cohen is the executive director of LISC Jacksonville as well as a Northside native.

To ensure Project Boots homes are affordable, and to attract an array of owners from different income brackets, the program has expanded into the 32208 and 32209 ZIP codes as well as the North Riverside portion of the 32204 ZIP code.

“It expanded because market forces made us expand,” Cohen says. “When we started this project, you used to be able to get lots for $10,000. Now, lots are $50,000 based upon the stadium deal that was signed. … I knew that we would, probably, get two, maybe 2½ cohorts, out of the Eastside before the market dictates that we (have to) go somewhere else.”

The proximity to Downtown, access to public transportation and availability of empty lots are the factors that Cohen says determined the selection of Durkeeville and North Riverside.

The areas Project Boots eyes for expansion are also communities where Ameris was accused of redlining by the Justice Department between 2016 and 2021.

Earlier this year, the lender launched its Ameris Choice program. Its creation came three months after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland personally visited Jacksonville to castigate Ameris’ practices in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

The five-year agreement calls on Ameris to subsidize $7.5 million in mortgages over a five-year period; open or acquire a new branch in a Black or Hispanic-majority census tract north of the St. Johns River; and spend at least $600,000 partnering with organizations to provide financial education and foreclosure prevention in the community. 

Anderson says interest in the Ameris Choice program has led to nearly $3 million in down payment assistance being awarded over the last six months.

Revitalizing neighborhoods

Organizations like LISC Jacksonville, Northwest Jacksonville Community Development Corp. and Fruit of Barren Trees have sought to revitalize predominantly Black neighborhoods through creating mixed-income development.

Those efforts have been aided through philanthropic and corporate dollars. Battle says those investments are the backbone of Project Boots. She adds that funding provides the financial might to make a difference for families like hers.

“I think there is some solace that comes to mind when you can place your key in own door and open it,” Battle says. “Having my son there with me, relocating to Out East, having that as my physical address and being a representative of the neighborhood feels really good.”