“I’ve had it in my heart to buy a house for more than two decades. I needed to stop going from place to place and just wanted to be done with all of that,” says Tanya Spencer.
When she and her husband, Jamal, took stock of their circumstances around 2017, they decided it was time to make the dream a reality. When Tanya saw that her mother could no longer take care of her disabled sister, she decided that their housing plans needed to include her sister. And when her grown daughter returned to the area and needed a place to live, the plan evolved even further.
“Once you say what you’re going to do, there’s a thousand things that can step in the way. So, you have to set the goal and just hurdle over those things and just keep pushing toward the goal,” she says.
When Tanya saw a posting for CSNDC’s First-Time Homebuyer Education Program, she jumped at the chance.
“I don’t think I could have done it without the course because I didn’t have anything outside of the class to show me the ropes,” she says.
She and Jamal also met with CSNDC’s financial counselors several times for one-on-one coaching. And, with the help of CSNDC’s Down Payment Assistance Program, they were able to purchase a three-bedroom home in Brockton, which they moved into at the beginning of 2024, along with Tanya’s sister and daughter.
“My feelings were very joyous,” she says. “Like, wow, this is really our home.”
