Bank Steps Up, & Stella Buys A Home

Soon after she moved into a rental in Fair Haven in the winter of 2022, Stella Damoah realized the heat didn’t work and the landlord couldn’t, or wouldn’t, fix it. She looked around for another place and found studio apartments starting at $1,800 and one-bedrooms for well beyond that. So she opted for space heaters, adding about $600 to her expenses. 

“That was when I made up my mind to look for a place to own,” said Damoah in a recent Zoom interview. 

Following an almost two-year odyssey, Damoah, an accountant who came to Connecticut from her native Ghana in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of New Haven, will close on a home in Naugatuck next month. 

That’s thanks to a program for first-time homebuyers offered by the New Haven HomeOwnership Center at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, as well as a $100,000 grant from the M&T Charitable Foundation announced in April. 

The program, called ​“HomeOwnership Matters,” provides $10,000 interest-free forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income urban homebuyers across New Haven County. To qualify for the loans, which can go toward down payments and closing costs, applicants must commit to being an owner occupant for five years, and participate in an education and counseling process. 

“These classes are really a demystification of the process, so we have the key role players, the lender, the home inspector, the attorney, and the insurance agent, talking about what they do,” said Bridgette Russell, managing director of the Homeownership Center, which administers the program. The goal, she said, ​“is to make sure that, as first-time homebuyers, we give them the guidance they need.”

Even with that guidance, Damoah discovered that buying a house is not for the faint of heart.

“Twice I was out-bidden,” she said. ​“With one house I was the first one to look and the first one to offer yet they told me that someone made a better offer with better conditions, and that meant cash.” Each time she went back to the apartment with the non-working heater.

When, finally, an offer went through, she learned the program had run out of funds. That was when the New Haven HomeOwnership Center, including Russell, sprang into action. 

“We went to the M&T Charitable Foundation and asked for additional funding to replenish the program, and they really stepped to the plate,” she said. 

The $100,000 grant, which was announced in April, is part of the second round of funding through the Foundation’s Amplify Fund, according to a release from M&T Bank. The Foundation awards nearly $40 million in grants per year to thousands of nonprofit organizations focused on improving the quality of life in the areas the bank serves. 

To hear Russell tell it, the recent infusion of funds was a crucial development. ​“So many factors, like limited inventory, higher interest rates, higher prices, real estate taxes, insurance, are making it harder and harder for first-time homebuyers to have the funds that are necessary for downpayment and closing costs,” she said.

“M&T committed for two years to the ​‘Homeownership Matters’ program, and we need other lenders to do that as well,” she said, explaining that programs can be combined with other employer- and city-assisted initiatives. ​“With them, we can keep the fund going to benefit future homeowners like Stella,” she said.

For anyone struggling to take the first steps toward buying a home, Damoah has a message. 

“I know there are people out there, working hard to have their own home and not have to rent,” she said. ​“Those are people that just can’t save enough to get to where they want to be, and I want to let them know that this is out there for them.” 

“Bridgette and everyone at the Homeownership Center helped me find a way, and I want to pay that forward.”