Mayor Bowser Announces New Tool to Help DC Teachers Buy Homes

• October 30th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

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While a budget item that Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed earlier this year to subsidize workforce housing was gutted, the city is now turning to a new tool to facilitate homeownership for DC Public Schools (DCPS) staff.

Today, the mayor's office announced a partnership with Landed, a company which offers down payment assistance to teachers and other school employees. The program would provide DCPS and charter school staff half of a down payment up to $120,000; in exchange, the company would receive a portion of the profit if the home is sold. In order to qualify, DCPS staff have to be employees for at least two years. 

It is unclear how or whether the Landed program would work with the Department of Housing and Community Development's Employer Assisted Housing Program, which offers first-time homebuying assistance to DC government employees.

“Our educators should be able to live in the city they serve," Mayor Bowser said in a statement. "This partnership with Landed will build on those efforts and ensure that DC continues to be an attractive and rewarding place for our educators to live and work.”  

Over 250 educators have purchased homes using Landed since the company launched in 2015, and it already operates in several other metro areas nationwide, including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles. DC will be the first city on the East Cost with a Landed program.

“We are thrilled to bring Landed’s homebuying resources to the east coast, beginning with the nation’s capital, and we look forward to connecting directly with educators and their families across the city,” said Landed co-founder, Alex Lofton, said in a statement.

Landed is one of several companies which, in recent years, have offered to bankroll or subsidize costs associated with housing in exchange for some form of payout.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/mayors-office-announces-partnership-to-help-dcps-teachers-buy-homes/16077.