Through Bay Vista’s Housing Ownership Opportunities Program Education (HOPE) financial education program, buyers of the Lisbon Vista Heights-LVH homes in Encanto who complete HOPE receive a small credit toward closing costs at the close of escrow. While the credit amount is small (typically $5,000) Bay Vista believes the financial knowledge gained by program participants both lessens the chance of failure at homeownership and illuminates the path to entrepreneurship, also nurturing Bay Vista’s second programmatic endeavor, The Collaborative School of Entrepreneurship (CSE). 

HOPE is an educational program designed to educate, inform, offer fair housing resources and financial workshops to impede housing discrimination through a user-friendly complaint system and resource conduit center located at Lisbon Vista Village – LVV. HOPE will empower and impact both African Americans and other people of color by developing personal credit & finance skills, providing education regarding discrimination in access to housing. Program participants will learn how to create and follow a budget, save for a down payment, improve their credit score, recognize unfair housing practices, and gain general information about the home purchase process.

We hope to qualify twenty-four families to purchase the affordable homes we are building at LVH in the traditionally African American community of Encanto in San Diego, California and financially educate one hundred additional individuals and families. Using workshops targeted to meet those needs, the goal is to positively impact a minimum of 124 families by increasing their financial literacy and access to valuable resources to purchase an affordable home. The escrow credit provided to the participants who complete HOPE will reduce the fees and costs that can be a barrier in purchasing a home. Our program will take families as they are and guide them to becoming qualified homebuyers. For 56 years, Bay Vista’s community-based work has offered affordable housing to underserved racially diverse, culturally diverse, and impoverished populations.