Santa Cruz County launches program to help K-12 employees buy a home
UPDATE November 16, 2017 5:45pm:
A new program has launched in Santa Cruz, which will provide half of the down payment (up to $120,000.00) on a home for public school educators across the County.
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has partnered with a San Francisco-based startup, Landed Inc., to provide down payment assistance to support Santa Cruz County public school teachers and staff with the purchase of a home.
The program provides half of the down payment on a home, up to $120,000.00 per family, in exchange for a portion of the appreciation or depreciation in the value of the home when the home is sold. The office says the goal is, that any gains from this assistance, will be re-invested to support an ever-growing number of educators in the county. Landed’s down payment support will be available to all teachers, administrators, and staff who have worked for a public school or district in the county for at least two years.
Staff attending the press conference today say they are excited for this opportunity, some already prepared to sign up. Johnny Rice, who has worked for the County for 20 years says he is going to take advantage of this opportunity, “as soon as I leave here, yes that’s the next thing on my list to do, is to go and see if I can get signed up for this.”
Rice owned a home with a coworker back in 2008, but sold it after getting married. He says now with three children and the steep market he did not have high hopes for being a home owner in Santa Cruz County again, until now. “This program certainly gives me, gives me hope,” says Rice.
Jennifer Izant Gonzales, another teacher with Santa Cruz County, says her family of four has been looking for years in what seems to be an impossible market. “It just sometimes kind of seems unfair that educators can’t buy homes in this community. We have not been able to buy a home, we’ve tried, we tried seriously a couple years ago and we realized we just couldn’t come up with a down payment, it wasn’t possible.”
County Superintendent of Schools Michael Watkins says too many educators are feeling the squeeze when it comes to housing, but is hopeful this new program will help. “We believe Landed will be a valuable solution to help improve school recruitment and retention by providing educators with a new option to help make homeownership more accessible” Watkins added.
Earlier this year, Landed received a $5 million investment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help educators in three public school districts on the Peninsula buy homes. Since its founding in 2015, Landed has already helped educators purchase homes in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and other cities across the Bay Area.
“As a proud product of Santa Cruz City Schools, I couldn’t be more thrilled to help provide teachers and staff in Santa Cruz County new support to help access homeownership and feel more rooted in their community,” said Landed Director of Partnerships, Ian Magruder, a former Student Representative on the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees whose mother and sister are both local teachers. Magruder says it means a lot to him and his family knowing he can help people in his home town, “it’s really fun to be here, both to provide this support and see what it can do for families here.”
If you or someone you know works at a public school or district in Santa Cruz County, you can find more information on Landed Inc. by clicking here.
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A new program has launched in Santa Cruz, which will provide half of the down payment (up to $120,000.00) on a home.
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has partnered with a San Francisco-based startup, Landed Inc., to provide down payment assistance to support Santa Cruz County public school teachers and staff with the purchase of a home.
The program provides half of the down payment on a home, up to $120,000.00 per family, in exchange for a portion of the appreciation or depreciation in the value of the home when the home is sold. The office says the goal is, that any gains from this assistance, will be re-invested to support an ever-growing number of educators in the county. Landed’s down payment support will be available to all teachers, administrators, and staff who have worked for a public school or district in the county for at least two years.
“As the cost of housing in Santa Cruz County continues to rise, too many of our educators are feeling the squeeze” said County Superintendent of Schools Michael Watkins. “We believe Landed will be a valuable solution to help improve school recruitment and retention by providing educators with a new option to help make homeownership more accessible” Watkins added.
Earlier this year, Landed received a $5 million investment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help educators in three public school districts on the Peninsula buy homes. Since its founding in 2015, Landed has already helped educators purchase homes in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and other cities across the Bay Area.
“As a proud product of Santa Cruz City Schools, I couldn’t be more thrilled to help provide teachers and staff in Santa Cruz County new support to help access homeownership and feel more rooted in their community,” said Landed Director of Partnerships, Ian Magruder, a former Student Representative on the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees whose mother and sister are both local teachers.
KION will have the latest on this new program on Thursday, as press is invited to learn more.
