Our Pledge to Social Justice
We are committed to exploring and challenging the way racism is embedded within the real estate industry as a whole. We practice this work in a way that is rooted in justice, transparency, and accountability to those most marginalized.
We are excited to announce a groundbreaking initiative –OWN IT: Building Black Wealth – is a two-part program designed to address and work towards eliminating substantial barriers to wealth and homeownership for Black families in the Greater Madison area. The program does so by providing two key elements: an educational program and access to down payment funds. The OWN IT initiative is launching with a pilot program, which will be offered to families and staff for free at One City Schools. We plan to continue this model with additional partner groups in the future.
What the program offers:
– A Wealth Building and Homeownership course for One City families and staff (begins Aug 2021).
– Down payment funds (free and clear) of $15,000, per family, will be available in 2022.
Alvarado Real Estate Group contributes a percentage of profits on a quarterly basis to the fund and we invite our colleagues, clients, and others to consider contributing as well. It is important to acknowledge the harm done within the real estate industry through racist policies and practices. We believe this fund can serve as one way to start addressing those harms and redistributing wealth.
Check out the OWN IT website here.
In the news:
Since Alvarado Real Estate Group opened our doors in 2008, we have always prided ourselves on providing exceptional customer service to our clients. We aim to understand our clients’ needs, as well as educate and support them through every step of the process to make for the most successful home buying and selling experience possible. And yet, we also aim to do business differently than most traditional real estate companies. We value racial justice and equality for all people just as much as we value helping our clients find their dream homes. We want to operate our business from a place of liberation and abundance for all. This has required that we take a very honest look at the ways in which those things have been systematically denied to certain groups of people.
The United States was founded on the colonization of indigenous people and their land, as well as the enslavement of African people who were forced to perform uncompensated labor. This resulted in a substantial accumulation of wealth for many white people. Opportunities continued for white people to build wealth when the US government and the real estate industry made the home buying process accessible only to them, while completely denying home ownership access to other groups. The legacy of many of these policies are still in effect today.
Alvarado Real Estate Group operates in a way that not only acknowledges the historical legacy of these inequalities, but also works to make amends for them and focuses on making sure all people can build generational wealth through real estate. We believe in human rights and reject any business model that values profit over people.
Learn about what it means to be an Antiracist Real Estate Brokerage: Read more >
Additional Information:
3 Unsettling Truths about Neighborhood Segregation
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People over property: One real estate company’s perspective
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