"Once you have your first property you can develop credit you can build from there. If you don't have a home, you have nothing to build from."
David Ebanks is a North Miami resident and an experienced homeowner throughout Florida. David immigrated to the United States from Honduras at the age of 10. He graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Social Work. Today, David has a passion for helping out other people in their process of homeownership for small gestures such as a cup of coffee.
During the interview, David Ebanks shares his own experience as an immigrant and his desire to go back home to Honduras when he first settled in the United States. He discusses barriers to homeownership and recalls his own experience with the housing market and generational wealth that came from his mother. Similar to many young people, David tells us about his own financial illiteracy and his experience with credit cards, mortgage, and credit as a young adult. He also talks about the inequality when it comes to purchasing a home for many people such as people of color and people who have been incarcerated.
In this episode, we discuss how Floridians struggle to pay for housing, which makes up for 25% of Floridians. This is for those with cost burdened low-income households struggling in the state of Florida. We also mention how people of color, specifically Black and Hispanic homeowners struggle more to pay for their housing. Cost Burden is defined as paying more than 30% of household income for housing including rent, mortgage, and utilities.
We also mention the struggles of coming to a different country as an immigrant affects our experiences as homeowners. Especially in Miami which has the highest rate of immigrant homeowners with 26% and as well as the largest number with immigrants in population with 41%.
Redlining is a topic mentioned by our own interviewee. We discuss the definition of redlining and how this affected minority communities in Miami. We further mention the history of Interstate 95 (I-95) and how this destroyed many Black and Hispanic communities during its development.
As always, our mission is to encourage the younger audience to get involved. Whether that is through research or engaging through organizations or programs. Our mission is also to provide assistance and resources to those that may find it useful.
Below are a few of those resources:
Click here to read Councilwoman Linda Julien, Investing through research.