The Metro: This Juneteenth, celebrating Black liberation and wealth generation through homeownership
Krysta Pate, founder and CEO of The Ownership Initiative, joined the show to discuss what Juneteenth means to her, and how homeownership is empowering Black Detroiters.
Houses in Detroit's Live6 neighborhood.
Local nonprofit Detroit Future City hosted a panel discussion and Juneteenth celebration on Tuesday to commemorate Black liberation and wealth generation through homeownership.
One of the panelists, Krysta Pate, is the founder and CEO of The Ownership Initiative, a nonprofit working to improve Detroiters’ access homeownership. Pate joined The Metro to discuss the event and the history of Black homeownership in Detroit.
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She says her biggest advice for Black Detroiters interested in purchasing a home is to stop dismissing homeownership as being unaffordable.
“I wish somebody would have told me this when I bought my first home — there is grant money out there. So not only the city of Detroit’s $25,000 grant, but the state of Michigan has a $10,000 grant that you can get,” she said. “And then also all of the banks that are in our local area, like your Bank of Americas, your Chase, your Flagstar, your Huntingtons, all of those banks have down payment assistance programs too, where they cover closing costs.”
Pate says a great place to start is on the city’s website.
“They have a ton of resources there,” she said. “…or go to a nonprofit that specializes in housing to find out what resources are there to help you along the way.”
Reflecting on what Juneteenth means to her, Pate says the holiday represents Black empowerment, adding that it is a great time for Black Americans to reevaluate their financial goals, whether it be to own a home, start a business or simply save more money.
“[Juneteenth] is about owning yourself, owning your own peace; also thinking about what your path is in life; thinking about all of the history behind being Black and where we’ve come from as a people, but also how far we need to go,” she said.
Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Pate.
WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.
More headlines from The Metro on June 19, 2024:
- Black Americans have largely been left out of the story of American invention. Andre Perry is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution whose recent work dives into the world of American invention and the impact Black Americans have had in the field. WDET’s Stephen Henderson spoke with Perry about how discrimination affected Black inventors differently in the North and South.
- Malcolm X is best known for his activism for civil rights and being a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. A lot of Malcolm’s life was rooted in Michigan, specifically Lansing and Inkster. Wayne State University’s Department of Anthropology has been working to restore the former Inkster home of the civil rights leader since 2021. WSU Professor Tareq Ramadan joined the show last month to discuss the project.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
