( ENSPIRE Community Spotlight ) Real Estate Attorney, Developer & Investor Darryl Scipio Launches Housing Initiative for Tenants to Become Homeowners
Calling all investors (over 18 years old)! DS Real Estate Investors and
Attorney Darryl Scipio has launched a crowdfunding campaign on smallchange.co to develop work-force housing in Newark, New Jersey that seeks to empower tenants to become homeowners. Savers Village is an investment opportunity for social impact. Through the program, renters are offered a savings and investment structure that aims to help build the foundation for generational wealth.
“Savers Village seeks to give investors the chance to do well and do good at the same time. Investors have the opportunity to make money. But more importantly, renters will have the opportunity to save for homeownership and begin to build generational wealth for their families. This project can be a true win-win for everyone.” – Scipio
With Savers Village, Scipio wants to solve several problems that are a recognized hurdle for renters wanting to become homeowners. The first is a general lack of financial literacy, and the second is a lack of down payment funds. The Savers Village program will tackle both, by offering all tenants financial literacy education and by saving 10% of each tenant’s monthly rental payment into savings accounts dedicated to each tenant. Savers Village plans to save and invest those funds conservatively for several years until the
tenant is ready to buy a home, and then return those funds to the tenant for home purchase costs. With 39 units planned for the project, to be built on vacant land in the West Ward, Lower Vailsburg section of Newark, 39 renters will become home-owners and then the process will begin again.
“We are impact investors that seek to provide an opportunity for the people who come from Newark and urban areas like it to invest in building real estate in those communities,” says Scipio.
DS Real Estate Investors has assembled a talented crew of Black entrepreneurs to manage and sponsor the project including Engineering & Construction Manager Brian Grant; Real Estate Development Consultant, Frank Robinson; Project Architect, Mark Bess; and Real Estate Developer, Patrick Terborg. Axcel Capital Group is acting as a financial broker and Scipio is negotiating a partnership with the New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education to provide financial literacy education in collaboration with non-profit partner Community Urban Renewal Enterprises. This educational program will focus on assisting renters with credit repair and first-time homebuyer education, with at least six courses over a one-year period.
Newark is an important springboard for this project. It is the third and oldest city in the country and has the 10th highest poverty rate in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 280,463, 75% of the residents are renters. “We want to help create a pipeline to homeownership through real estate investing,” says Scipio. This project was the brainchild of people from the community that understand the community and what it needs to build wealth.
To learn more about Savers Village go to https://www.smallchange.co/projects/savers-village.
