Native CDFI, new homeowner share story of crossing barriers in docu-series
Tammy Granados and her daughter work on dinner in their new home. (Photo: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
- By Chez Oxendine |
Tammy Granados never imagined she’d own a home on her reservation — let alone become the face of a national docu-series on Native housing solutions.
Facing a rent increase that threatened to displace her and four children from a two-bedroom apartment, the enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe connected with a Native community development financial institution (CDFI) that helped her navigate the complex world of mortgages on trust land. Now, her path from housing crisis to homeownership takes center stage in an episode of “From Hope to Home,” a three-part docu-series funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims to address the massive homeownership gap between Native Americans and other ethnic groups.
The seven-minute video, produced in partnership with Eagle, Butte, S.D.-based Four Bands Community Fund, tackles head-on what experts identify as the primary obstacle to Native homeownership: financial literacy.
“I remember playing Monopoly with my family as a child, and when mortgages came up, I’d ask my parents what they were and they couldn’t explain them,” Four Bands Executive Director Lakota Vogel told Tribal Business News. “It’s not about whether or not people have perfect credit or their ability to handle the mortgage — it’s that a lot of us don’t know what they are, and we need to change that.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please: Share your reaction, your thoughts, and your opinions. Be passionate, be unapologetic. Offensive remarks will not be published. We are getting more and more spam. Comments will be monitored.
Use the comment form at the bottom of this website which is private and sent direct to Trace.