Are $40,000 Loans The Key To Closing Denver's Racial Home Ownership Gap?

Until recently, Justin Murchison wasn’t really thinking about buying a home. He was more focused on paying down his credit card debt and taking care of his plants. Then he stumbled upon on opportunity that most young people in Denver only dream about: a path to buying their first home. City Cast Denver host Bree Davies chats with Justin about his journey to homeownership. Plus, we’ll hear from Santhosh Ramdoss, vice president of impact investing at Gary Community Ventures. He helped create The Dearfield Fund that made Justin’s home purchase possible and he says it could be the key to shrinking Denver’s racial home ownership gap. 

Wanna know where Gary Community Ventures got that name for their fund — Dearfield? We talked about the historic Black homesteading community with Westword editor Patty Calhoun a few weeks ago, and you can learn even more courtesy of the Colorado Encyclopedia. 

Do you want a chance to see Radiolab founder Jad Abumrad at the Paramount Theater on April 17? We’re giving away two free tickets, and all you have to do to enter is write a really nice review of City Cast Denver wherever you listen to podcasts, and rate us 5 stars. Then, take a screenshot of your review and send it to us at denver@citycast.fm by April 1. 

Near the end of this episode, Bree mentions a federal civil rights trial over the Denver Police Department’s use of force during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. We’ve got a full breakdown of the trial in our newsletter today. Read that and subscribe here: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/

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