October 2024

A Big Step from One Room to a Home

It’s the simple things – like relaxing in the living room after work or watching her 6-year-old daughter roam from room to room – that Vanessa Bonheur enjoys most about being in her new home in Whitman.

It is a big step away from the single room in Brockton crammed with clothing and other belongings that Bonheur rented for five years. Now, Bonheur has a place of her own and her daughter, who was just months old when they first moved into the single room, sleeps in her own bedroom.

“I love it all,” said Bonheur, of being a homeowner.

Bonheur, 33, spent more than five years saving for a home, and in early August of 2024, moved into the two-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath townhome.

The home purchase was possible because of help from BankFive. Christopher Craig, first vice president, regional sales manager at BankFive, worked with Bonheur to secure the mortgage loan and a $30,806 down-payment assistance grant through FHLBank Boston’s Equity Builder Program (EBP).

Over the last three years, BankFive has been awarded grants totaling $630,594 for 22 income-eligible homebuyers through EBP and FHLBank Boston’s two other homeownership assistance programs, Housing Our Workforce and Lift Up Homeownership. The programs have been crucial, particularly with tight inventory and lack of housing supply putting pressure on home prices, explained Craig.

“These FHLBank Boston down-payment assistance programs create opportunities that otherwise would not be there for us,” said Craig.

Launched in 2003, EBP provides grants to first-time buyers earning up to 80% of the area median income.

Housing Our Workforce, established in 2019 to assist buyers earning slightly higher incomes who are also struggling to afford housing, provides down-payment and closing-cost assistance to borrowers earning more than 80% and up to 120% of the area median income.

Housing affordability is a big problem in the state of Massachusetts, particularly for first-time homebuyers, and FHLBank Boston is doing something about it.

Christopher Craig

First Vice President, Regional Sales Manager

BankFive

In 2023, FHLBank Boston launched a Special Purpose Credit Program called Lift Up Homeownership to narrow the racial homeownership gap in New England. The program offers grants to people of color earning up to 120% of the area median who are purchasing their first home.

“Housing affordability is a big problem in the state of Massachusetts, particularly for first-time homebuyers, and FHLBank Boston is doing something about it,” said Craig.

Before connecting with Craig, Bonheur had spent time searching for a home in the $250,000 price range. She found a listing online for the Whitman home which was on sale for $219,000 as part of an affordable housing lottery for income-eligible buyers run by Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA).

Bonheur, who works for Boston University’s catering department, submitted an application and won the lottery. CHAPA provided a list of banks like BankFive that could provide financing, which led Bonheur to speak to Craig at BankFive.

In addition to helping Bonheur, Craig has helped a family of six that qualified for Lift Up Homeownership purchase a home in Methuen this past summer and a woman in her 50s buy her first home in West Bridgewater.

Craig noted that along with FHLBank Boston’s homeownership assistance programs, BankFive tries to connect lower-income individuals and families to MassHousing programs and community grant programs offered through cities like New Bedford and Lawrence to make homeownership more affordable.

“Owning a home is a life-changing event for these homebuyers,” said Craig. “It has a huge impact in their lives.”