Home for the holidays

Joey Mcleister, Star Tribune

Leticia Brown’s children, 4-year-old Jaivon, left, and 9-year-old Ariana, show off their new home in north Minneapolis.

The Twin Cities is home to dozens of organizations aimed at helping people become homeowners. Here's how some of those groups helped Leticia Brown fulfill her dreams.

By LYNN UNDERWOOD, Star Tribune

Last update: December 21, 2007 - 10:11 AM

The Minneapolis house that Leticia Brown was renting had windows that were painted shut, a mouse infestation and a shoddy kitchen. "Two days after I moved in, I wanted to move out," she said.

After being a renter for eight years, Brown was determined to fulfill an ambitious goal for 2007 -- to own her own home. "I wanted to do it for my children," she said.

This year, she and Jaivon, 4, and Ariana, 9, bought a 1½- story house in north Minneapolis with three bedrooms, two baths and a fenced yard with a garden. Brown, who works as a medical coder for Allina Hospitals and Clinics, also has a cozy office in her finished basement.

"Owning a house will give my kids stability and consistent schooling," said Brown, who is the first among her siblings to own a home. And this Christmas, she's having the family over to show off her new digs.

Homeownership didn't come easy. Brown participated in a home buyer education workshop and received financial help from several housing agencies in the Twin Cities. She went house-hunting with a real estate agent looking for "a nice place in move-in condition" in a Minneapolis neighborhood. "I think we looked at just about every house on the market," she said.

Finally, she found a house in the Shingle Creek neighborhood for $189,000 and bought it with help from the nonprofit City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT) Home Buyer Initiated (HIP) program, which gives grants to qualifying low- to moderate-income families, and a deferred loan from the Home Ownership Made Easy (HOME) program, which helps Minneapolis, St. Paul and Metropolitan Council Public Housing and Section 8 families become homeowners.

This assistance helped Brown increase her buying power and get a more affordable mortgage.

She also contributed $3,000 of her savings to closing costs. "A great team of people worked with me," Brown said. "It was a personal goal they made a reality."

After the closing, Brown recalled standing in the back yard, overcome with emotion. "I did this for my kids," she said. "It's their house, their yard."

Today she gets excited about going to Home Depot with plans to put a hardwood floor in the dining room and paint her daughter's bedroom hot pink -- things that she couldn't do as a renter. "If I don't like something, I can change it," she said.

Lynn Underwood • 612-673-7619

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