Like the five other families in their FII-Oakland cohort, Jorge and Maria Elena were refugees from the civil war in El Salvador. All of the families regularly sent any extra money they had to family back in El Salvador. So it was a surprise when the couple announced that they were going to buy a house, something they all thought would take at least a decade to accomplish.
But they'd found a real estate broker who spoke Spanish and convinced friends and family to help them with the down payment. But the broker turned out to be a predatory lender and their mortgage was 65% of their income. FII thought they would lose the house. But Jorge and Maria Elena and their community had other ideas. Their friends descended upon the house to paint, tile, landscape, and roof it. The increased value of the house allowed them to re-finance their mortgage, getting the payments down to a manageable amount.
Jorge and Maria Elena's personal initiative inspired the others in their cohort. After it became clear that Maria Elena and Jorge were going to be able to keep their home, others started saving money for homes. To the families, seeing a peer buy a home made it seem more realistic and achievable. Eventually, all five families in the group purchased homes. Furthermore, the group's example had a ripple effect on the large community. Expectations of what was possible shifted and other families began purchasing homes as well.