From our Arthur Ashe commemorative issue: These Richmonders share Ashe's commitment to strengthen the African-American community.
Damon and Tarah Harris (Photo by Ash Daniel)
When Tarah and Damon Harris began selling homes nearly three years ago, Richmond’s real-estate market was growing rapidly post-recession and had been recognized as one of the nation’s hottest by CNN Money in 2014. But not all residents of the city have benefited from the continued upswing.
African-Americans in Richmond have a home ownership rate of more than 49 percent, which lags behind that of whites by more than 26 percent. Nationally, the 41 percent home ownership rate of African-Americans is similar to what it was nearly five decades ago when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act. The country’s rate of white home ownership is 71 percent. It’s a divide that the Harrises, business partners who have been married for 17 years, have seen affect their clients. African-Americans are hampered by income inequalities and discrimination in every step of the home buying process, Damon explains.
“People told us to just sell houses and not have an opinion, but we started to note unfairness in the transaction process,” he says. “People of color received mortgage approvals for less money and could have the same credit score. It could be as much as $50,000 less, which changes your ZIP code and changes your buying power.”
Also, the frequently lower incomes of African-American home buyers and their comparatively reduced access to cash and gifts often bar them from conventional mortgage loans, which require a larger down payment but cost less over the life of a loan than those subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration.
As a response to the housing gap, the Harrises started the Tarah & Damon Academy. Their program includes free courses, funded by 20 percent of the profits from their home sales, on the process of buying and selling a home, building credit, and leveraging real estate assets.
The initiative fights inequalities that mirror those experienced by Arthur Ashe, who played at the segregated Brook Field Park tennis courts. At the time, Byrd Park, was only open to whites.
“He couldn’t go to Byrd Park because of segregation, and the odd part is, it’s the same thing we are talking about with housing in Richmond,” Damon says. “The redlining, the blockbusting, all of those issues that we are still dealing with today when people talk about poverty in Richmond … it is the exact same thing he was dealing with back then.”
As part of their strategy to combat continued inequality, the Harrises also give personal consultations and offer specialized financial education. Roughly 80 percent of academy students are not real estate clients, the couple says. During private consultations, aspiring home buyers occasionally lay their bills in piles in front of the Harrises, desperate for guidance on how to dig out of debt.
“Sometimes people feel the need to explain what got them deep into credit debt in the first place,” Tarah says. “Things happen — that just tells me you lived life. That was then, and this is now.”
The Harrises estimate that 400 people have completed their classes. They aim to eventually reach 2,000 annually through the addition of online classes. The goal is not only to grow the number of African-American home buyers, but also to build a savvy community of people who leverage their homes as assets.
“We want people to be educated from beginning to end,” Tarah says, “not just on how to get the house, but what to do when they have it.”