This article was originally published in our Fall 2024 print newsletter. Find the fully formatted PDF here.
Joe Wiah first came to Vermont in 2012 from Liberia to attend the School for International Training in Brattleboro as a graduate student. Faraja Kimetuu arrived from Tanzania a year later for the same purpose. It was there that they met and fell in love – with Vermont, and each other.
Today, Joe and Faraja are life partners, new parents, and very proud new homeowners in Brattleboro. They purchased their home through the WWHT Shared Equity Homeownership Program, and they were also the very first homebuyers to access the newly expanded BIPOC down payment assistance program, which became available statewide in April of this year.
Joe is the director of the local Ethiopian Community Development Council – a job he has held since 2021 – where he coordinates with community organizations, government, and individuals to assist refugees with employment, housing, education, medical care, and integration into community life. In 2022, Joe was recognized by the Vermont Community Foundation for his work with refugees and other under-represented community members. He has also worked as a Housing Case Manager for Southeastern Vermont Community Action, where he helped Vermonters from 15 Windham County towns access housing, fuel, food, and home repair services.
“Through my work, helping people find housing, I had already been working extensively with Windham & Windsor Housing Trust,” says Joe. “So when the time came for us, knowing we wanted to become homeowners, we knew of the incredible challenge that was ahead of us.”
Before buying their home, Joe and Faraja were residents in WWHT’s Westgate Housing property in Brattleboro. While renting there, they made further important connections that would guide them on their home buying journey.
“I joined the board of the Westgate property,” says Joe. “That was how I got to know Elizabeth (Bridgewater) from the Housing Trust. Through this experience, I gained a better understanding of WWHT’s range of resources.”
Joe and Faraja took the first step by signing up for WWHT’s Homebuyer Education Workshop.
“We were incredibly lucky to go through the Homeownership Program,” says Joe. “That program gave us an understanding of what to expect as home buyers – what the process is like; what kinds of questions to ask; the advantages and disadvantages of owning a house; what you need to know as a homeowner versus if you are a renter.”
With the support of their counselor as well as Bruce Whitney, WWHT’s Director of Homeownership, Joe and Faraja navigated each step of the home buying process, from credit check, to calculating income-to-debt ratio, to comparing conventional loans with a Shared Equity loan, to identifying financial assistance programs that were available. That was how they found out about the BIPOC down payment assistance program.
“Our counselor at WWHT knew exactly what we might qualify for,” says Joe. “So they could say, this resource is available and this will be the requirement – you may qualify for this, or you may not be qualified. We were doing our own research too, but we weren’t sure how to apply for any of these programs until we talked to our counselor.”
Although the process felt redundant and frustrating at times, Joe says in hindsight, it was a very positive experience. They felt well-supported.
“Above all, we knew and saw that there were incredible people that really wanted to help us,” he says. “Knowing that we had so much support from both the Housing Trust and Brattleboro Savings & Loan, it was a very good feeling for us.”
Joe and Faraja closed on their new home on August 1. It was a memorable day for them.
“Signing all of the paperwork, that was a long, long process,” recalls Joe. “And then when we got the key, we knew – now we own a house!”
“We drove straight to the house,” laughs Faraja. “And this time, Bruce wasn’t with us, no one else was with us. We had our own key. It was a very noticeable difference.”
Even though their new home is located in the center of Battleboro, Joe describes the community as having a sense of privacy. Built in the 90’s, the house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a partially finished basement, a deck and a two-car garage. Perhaps the most important feature is that the home was a Shared Equity Home resale – it was already part of WWHT’s Shared Equity portfolio.
On the other side of the transaction was a family who decided to move south. As Shared Equity homeowners, they had accrued enough equity to make a down payment on a traditional mortgage in their new community.
Joe believes the value of the shared equity model boils down to one key benefit.
“In a word – affordability. Because we are first time homebuyers, we don’t have generational wealth, so to be able to pay for a nice house, in a decent, quiet neighborhood, with the current interest rates what they are right now, that’s the biggest benefit.”
Joe and Faraja agree that becoming homeowners has changed their lives for the better. For one thing, there is more room for their expanding family.
“We are a blended family, and we’ve grown from just the two of us to six,” says Faraja. “We have one teenager and one young adult who just came from Liberia in May, so now they are with us. We have a cousin staying with us, and we have a new baby – just 2 months old, who will grow up in this new house.”
“Also, this is a house that we can pass on to the next generation, if we choose,” adds Joe. “That’s another thing we are grateful for. And we can do whatever we want, change whatever we want, we don’t need permission from anyone.”
And then there is the feeling of being more connected to their community – of being established citizens, where their voices and opinions matter.
Joe and Faraja feel fortunate to have found their house when they did. They say they would love to see the program expand, and make more homes available.
“Right now, in our network of friends – some of them first-generation immigrants – they are really wishing to go into the Shared Equity program,” says Joe. “There are so many people who could really benefit.”
Joe acknowledges that everyone’s path to homeownership is different, and he encourages people to educate themselves, and know their options. “For folks who are considering homeownership, I encourage them to compare conventional homeownership with Shared Equity homeownership, to dig deeper into the advantages and disadvantages of the two programs, and to really understand the differences. It might help them to make a decision on whether the Shared Equity program is best for them.”
Joe adds, “We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to all those who helped us along the way, from Housing Trust folks, Elizabeth, Bruce, and our counselors there, as well as those folks at Brattleboro Savings and Loan, who were so patient and calm and helped us through the process, the lawyers as well, our friends – there were so many more. We wouldn’t have made it home without the support of all those people. For this, we are truly grateful.”
