NM Sen. Martin Heinrich's legislation would give educators a leg up in the housing market

Albuquerque High teacher Andrew Tafoya Leverett had long aspired to be an Albuquerque homeowner. That dream was realized two months ago when Tafoya Leverett purchased a home within walking distance of the high school .

“I grew up in the city, I was born in the city, and I’ve been wanting for many, many years to invest in my home city,” Tafoya Leverett said during a housing roundtable Monday.

Tafoya Leverett teaches bilingual health and New Mexico history. He has been teaching for eight years — two at Albuquerque High. Homeownership can be a springboard to generational wealth, he said.

Five years ago he heard about nonprofit Homewise, where he took financial literacy classes that he found useful. Earlier this year, he purchased his home from Homewise.

Making home purchases easier

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., hosted the roundtable Monday to discuss new legislation, the Educator Downpayment Assistance Act, meant to make it easier for educators to buy their first homes.

The legislation would authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide grants up to $25,000 to local governments and educational agencies for down payment assistance for full-time educators who are first-time homebuyers. The program could include teachers, librarians, principals, instructional support personnel and more.

“It’s really important to be able to have teachers live in their own communities, because it really creates the glue that holds communities together,” Heinrich said. “Kids can then look at their educators and see people who look like them who are from similar backgrounds, and then they see this path to a more abundant future.”

To be eligible, the educator would have to serve in one position for at least three years before the award and at least three years after. The educator would also have to make no more than 120% of the median income in their area, or for high-cost areas, 180% of the median income.

Legislation also is being developed that would create a new homebuyer tax credit, Heinrich said.

“That would create incentives with groups like Homewise to be able to start rebuilding this capacity, and get more and more housing stock out there,” Heinrich said.

Addressing a ‘racial wealth gap’

Homewise is a nonprofit certified community development financial institution. The nonprofit offers real estate services, mortgage lending, down payment assistance, and free financial literacy classes and one-on-one counseling.

Credit, savings and debt management are the three topics that most families who use Homewise want more knowledge and education on, according to Chief Operating Officer Elena Gonzales.

Homewise is trying to reduce the racial disparity in home ownership, she said.

“One of our biggest priorities at Homewise is we’re trying to address the racial wealth gap here in New Mexico through home ownership, because home ownership is the biggest wealth driver for most people,” Gonzales said. “We have some families left behind. Our Native American and African American families have a much lower home ownership rate, and that’s a much lower level of wealth.”

So the nonprofit’s staff tries to come up with resources that will level the playing field for underserved communities, she said, but its services can apply to anyone in the community.

“You can make a lot of money, but you may not know how to manage it effectively or efficiently or know anything about buying a home. So we teach you all of that,” Gonzales said.