On Fairmount Avenue in Newark, the ribbon cutting for eight new two-family homes was more than a celebration of construction completed. It was a celebration of a model that can help working families become homeowners, build assets, and remain part of the neighborhoods they helped sustain.
There is no secret to building two-family homes in Newark. Drive through the city and you can see them rising on vacant lots. Some will be owner-occupied, but many will become investment properties, with rents and sales prices determined by what the market can bear. In today’s market, too many of these homes are priced far beyond the reach of the average Newark family.
That is why the Urban League of Essex County’s Fairmount homes matter. What makes this project significant is not simply that we built two-family homes. What makes it significant is who they were built for, how they were financed, and what they are designed to make possible for families over time.
We built these homes so working families in Newark could have a real pathway to ownership. Families earning moderate incomes are too often left out of the homeownership market, even when they are working, saving, and doing everything we ask families to do. For them, homeownership is not just a dream. It is one of the most powerful tools available to create stability and generational wealth.
For many families, a home is the first meaningful asset they will ever own. It is where children gain a stronger sense of security. It is where equity can begin to grow. It is where wealth can move from one generation to the next. Development should not only change the appearance of a block. It should change the economic trajectory of the people who live there.
The Fairmount model was designed with that purpose in mind. These homes were built to green community standards, with energy-efficient appliances, durable materials, cement siding, and metal roofs intended to reduce maintenance and operating costs over time. Affordability is not only about the purchase price. It is about the total cost of ownership, and whether families can remain stable after they receive the keys.
We also paired families with housing and financial coaching through the Urban League’s Financial Opportunity Center model. We do not believe in short-term transactions. We believe in long-term relationships. Our work connects housing counseling, employment supports, income supports, financial literacy, asset building, and family services so residents can earn more, manage expenses, increase savings, and build wealth.
The model goes further. Rental income from these two-family homes is structured to help families build a nest egg over time. The goal is that, at the end of the compliance period, families are not simply homeowners on paper. They are financially stronger than when they moved in, with years of support, equity-building, rental income, and a real opportunity to create an asset that can benefit their children and grandchildren.
That is the difference between housing that is transactional and housing that is transformational.
Making this possible was not easy. The cost of building a new two-family home is now more than $500,000 – and that’s just hard costs. Through an innovative financing structure that layered New Markets Tax Credits, public subsidy, predevelopment support, private investment, legal structuring, and mission-aligned partnerships, these homes were made affordable to working Newark families at under $200,000.
Some people have asked whether selling homes at that price means we are giving them away. My answer is no. We are selling them at a price the average working family in Newark can afford. The problem is not that the homes are priced too low. The problem is that incomes are too low, and too many housing finance systems are designed primarily for rental housing, tax credit markets, or private return.
Capital will always find its way to a return. It does not need help doing that. But families do. Communities do. Nonprofits do.
If we want housing that creates ownership, savings, pride, stability, and generational wealth, we must change how these projects are financed, scored, supported, and regulated. We need capital stacks and public policies that value community benefit as much as financial return. We need flexible predevelopment capital, deeper subsidy, patient investors, capable community development financial institutions, and public partners willing to make homeownership possible for families who are too often shut out.
The Fairmount project proves that this can be done. Just as importantly, it gives us a proof of concept for what must come next. It shows that the Urban League can layer complex financing, manage construction, prepare families for ownership, support them after closing, and keep long-term wealth-building at the center of the work.
Completing these homes positions us to scale. The goal is not to stop with one block or one ribbon cutting. The goal is to build a pipeline of larger mixed-income and homeownership projects that allow more Newark residents to own, more families to save, more renters to become homeowners, and more community wealth to stay in Newark.
This work required committed partners, including the City of Newark, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the National Community Investment Fund, Wells Fargo, LISC, Industrial Bank, Monge Capital, philanthropic supporters, bank partners, our board, and the Urban League staff who carried this project from concept to completion. It also required residents and families willing to believe that ownership was possible.
When residents see homes being built, streets improving, and families becoming homeowners, belief shifts. Hope becomes tangible. Ownership becomes possible.
The Fairmount homes stand as proof that nonprofit development can do more than produce units. It can produce ownership. It can produce stability. It can produce savings. It can produce pride. Most importantly, it can produce wealth that families can build on and pass on.
Newark does not need revitalization that displaces residents. Newark needs revitalization that includes them, invests in them, and helps them own a piece of the future being built around them. The completion of these homes is not the end of the work. It is the beginning of a larger opportunity to scale a model that can create lasting economic benefit for residents, families, and neighborhoods across the city.
Vivian Cox Fraser is the president and CEO of Urban League of Essex County
