Marcus [00:00:07]:

The reality is that everybody should have a place to live that’s safe, that’s decent, where they can grow, they can thrive. I just believe everybody wants that and everybody deserves that. We just need figure out how to make that happen. You know, I may need different kinds of assistance to get to that point than somebody else, and I think that’s okay. We have to keep that in mind. You know, the housing piece is a critical component. I think we’re going to be involved in that for the foreseeable future.

 

Amanda [00:00:33]:

That’s the voice of Marcus Randolph, president and CEO of Invest Newark. He’s an expert on affordable housing and finance who’s worked at Chase and the New York City Housing Development Corporation. And we’re talking with him today about this edo’s work to help locals at all income levels become homeowners. We’ll also cover other strategies to boost and maintain the percentage of folks out there who own their home. I’m Amanda Ellis and you’re listening to Inside America’s Best Cities, a podcast for Chamber, Economic Development, and Talent Attraction professionals. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with that, let’s jump in. Marcus, thank you so much for joining us on Inside America’s Best Cities. We’re super excited to talk with you.

 

Marcus [00:01:18]:

Thanks so much for having me. I’m excited too.

 

Amanda [00:01:20]:

You are our inaugural New Jersey guest. We talk to folks from all over the country, but you’re the first from the state. So, little debut.

 

Marcus [00:01:27]:

All right, awesome, awesome.

 

Amanda [00:01:28]:

So we’re here to talk about some work that Invest Newark is doing to help people become homeowners that I feel like is very unique. Super excited to hear more. Give us some overview of that.

 

Marcus [00:01:40]:

Sure. Absolutely. So Invest Newark is the Economic Development Corporation for the city of Newark, New Jersey. We do a few different things, one of them being that we are integral part of the mayor’s housing plan. Our Mayor, Ras J. Baraka, really wants to increase our homeownership rate, which hovers around 25%. So we’re trying to get creative about how we can increase that percentage. And one of the things that this organization has been tasked with is we do run the Newark land bank. It’s the only land bank in the state, really sort of came online during the pandemic. City hall council folks here in Invest Newark got together to make this a reality and start getting people into homes and get them in at a price that they can afford. We have a very low average income here in our city. Most folks really cannot afford to purchase a home of their own. So this is an opportunity for people to get their own home in a city that they love, they’ve lived in, grown up in, at a price they can afford.

 

Amanda [00:02:48]:

What exactly is a land bank?

 

Marcus [00:02:51]:

A land bank is where we essentially, I’ll say we are in our example. So we get properties that have been foreclosed on from the city. We have other mechanisms to get properties as well, but primarily, we get in front of the city, we’re able to get those transferred in bulk. So the last two times we’ve done, we’ve had about 85 properties in each sort of bulk transfer. So we are essentially banking these properties, but they have all been sort of run-down, neglected. So we get them, quote-unquote, bank them until we can figure out the next steps, which in many cases is just trying to establish the house through extensive rehab and then sell them affordably.

 

Amanda [00:03:35]:

So there is typically an existing house versus building something from the ground up?

 

Marcus [00:03:40]:

Some cases, there are some times where we can’t save the house. Some of the lots are vacant. So we’re actually going to start new construction, our first foray into new construction very shortly. And then there are also some small lots. We call them side lots. As do other land banks across the country, by zoning ordinance, they’re too small for us to build a house on them, but it still gets them off of the cities, sort of part of the city’s dime, having to do property maintenance and inspection, etcetera. We try to sell those to the person who owns the adjoining property, and more often than not, we’re successful in doing that.

 

Amanda [00:04:16]:

Interesting. How do you choose who to consider for this program? How do people get in the pipeline for it?

 

Marcus [00:04:22]:

Yeah. Yeah. So really, anyone can. We do have preference, we do give preference to people who have lived in Newark for, I think, at least three years, maybe five. One of the programs that we do offer from, via our land bank is we allow a program where people who have used a section 8 voucher for rent, they can take basically the funding from that voucher and use that for a mortgage. And so we work with the Newark Housing Authority, who administers the voucher program for our city. We have a very good partnership with NACA, which is Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. They’re super helpful in getting people not only sort of identifying those who might want to go through that section 8 program, but getting them ready as well to become homeowners. And then we have other opportunities where a developer may put in a bid for a vacant property to do a multifamily on it. And then we have another program for people who have slightly higher incomes, about 80% of AMI, where we still act as a developer on that, but we fix those houses up and sell them at that affordability level.

 

Amanda [00:05:34]:

Talk more about why this work is important. Why does it matter whether people are homeowners versus just having a place to live?

 

Marcus [00:05:42]:

Yeah. Yeah. So we really do think of home ownership as an economic development tool. I mean, we like to think that when people purchase one of our homes, they’re really stepping into equity. Obviously, there are some restrictions that come along with buying one of our homes. We want them to stay in the neighborhood for a defined period of time. But if we’re selling them below market, you’re stepping into a property where right off the bat, right, you’ve got $100,000 or maybe even more of equity. But further, you know, the benefits of home ownership, right, are so many, and I think people are talking about it more, but, you know, safe spaces where people can live and now also work is instrumental. You know, during COVID there are some changes in our city that made it easier for people to have home-based businesses, but, you know, without a home, no home-based business. Right?

 

Amanda [00:06:34]:

Yeah. There’s been some interesting movement on the childcare front of a lot of communities doing things to encourage more home-based childcare centers along the lines of businesses like you were just talking about. But, yeah, you’re right. Hard to do that if you don’t have the space, right?

 

Marcus [00:06:46]:

Right, exactly.

 

Amanda [00:06:48]:

So this has been ongoing. Believe the article I read that sparked me to ask for this interview was from 2022. How long have you all been engaging in this?

 

Marcus [00:06:58]:

I think we sold our first home in 2021, I believe. I think the ordinance was passed, land bank was created in 2019. 2020 hits almost four years a day. Right, COVID. So that in some ways, slowed things down, but kept pushing forward. So we got properties, I think in 2020, first homes were sold in 2021 at this point. Now, in 2024, we’ve gotten two tranches, with the third tranche to be delivered this year. It is really great to see not just the homeowners when they move into a home. Many who thought I’d never be a homeowner, and so they become homeowners. And it’s like, yeah, this is the work that you did. You put this program together. Now, look at this. Here’s a family living in one of these houses.

 

Amanda [00:07:51]:

Yeah. And such a tangible result to be able to see. Right? I mean, not all of our work has something so rewarding. That’s really cool.

 

Marcus [00:07:58]:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

 

Amanda [00:08:01]:

Do you have a specific success story that you like to share about someone who’s benefited from this?

 

Marcus [00:08:07]:

Yeah, absolutely. So the last two years just sort of happened this way. We’ve had what we call these housewarmings that happened right around Thanksgiving. Last year’s was really, really special because we had partners that heard about what it is that we’re doing and wanted to join in on that. In particular, the New York Giants, you may have heard of them. So they sent one of their players over and we surprised the purchaser by taking her shopping with one of the players in New York Giants. Most of her home was furnished, so she’s able to actually step into her home days before Thanksgiving, furnished. Family was able to move in, have their first Thanksgiving in their own home. The furniture came via Bob’s Discount Furniture, and it was just a fantastic day. The number of people who were in that house to welcome her was just outstanding. You know, our Mayor loved it. I loved it. It’s a great story.

 

Amanda [00:09:08]:

Yeah, that’s amazing. What a great day. Great kickoff to the holiday season, too, to say the least.

 

Marcus [00:09:13]:

Yeah, yeah. And I would add to that as well that there are also local general contractors that we’ve been employing, and so their businesses have been growing as a result of this land bank rehab work, too.

 

Amanda [00:09:26]:

Yeah. Thinking about our listeners in the economic development space who might want to replicate something like this, where would you say they should start? What advice would you have?

 

Marcus [00:09:37]:

Yes. Well, I guess a couple things. I’d say one, they certainly will need to, if there is no land bank in their state, they will certainly need partnerships with government and elected officials to make it happen, which is very much what we did here. Our mayor worked very closely with Governor Phil Murphy to make this happen. But there’s also some other groups that can help. There are, I believe, over 200 land banks across the country. One group that assists a lot is the Center for Community Progress. They are a fantastic group that really knows all about how you sort of address vacant land, and that can be residential, can be commercial. They were very critical in setting up a number of land banks across the country. Though we often say that we’re the only land bank in the state of New Jersey, we really don’t want to be. We’re hoping that others will begin to seriously think about forming their own land bank.

 

Amanda [00:10:29]:

Thinking about housing affordability, and also I feel like that’s the largest barrier to home ownership, but maybe others. What are some other ways communities can work on alleviating some of those issues? And maybe if you have any examples you like from other communities that you could share.

 

Marcus [00:10:51]:

Yeah, I do think that this is a critical time in the country. A lot of cities are addressing their zoning issues, which if you really peel back some of the layers, a lot of the old zoning issues lead to issues with affordability, whether it’s sort of pushing back on building mass housing. It can even be the square footage of the lot that’s required to build a house. It can even be things like whether you allow accessory dwelling units, which could be another source of income to keep people in their homes, which is another issue. We talk about housing affordability sometimes. It’s also the question of what can we do to keep people who are in a house… how can we help them maintain that home? So there’s a number of things that I think can be done. I come from an affordable housing finance background, and over the years, and that’s been a lot of fun, but I think people have been correct in saying that creating more affordable housing really is just one component of how we address the affordability crisis. There are a bunch of people every day who lose their homes and it could be prevented. We have to work on that, too.

 

Amanda [00:12:04]:

That’s true. That does always seem to be overlooked. It’s a lot more about no one can get into anything and how do we get people into. Which, of course, is important, but, yeah, also maintaining.

 

Marcus [00:12:15]:

Right, right, absolutely.

 

Amanda [00:12:17]:

And interesting, too, it sounds like a lot of your advice about how to help with some of this is from a legality standpoint and what some of that looks like in terms of what you can create.

 

Marcus [00:12:27]:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

 

Amanda [00:12:29]:

As someone who has a lot of expertise in this realm, I wanted to get your thoughts on the implications of the current housing market, on relocation and talent. So that’s something a lot of our listeners are focused on. Of course, talent attraction, you know, getting people into a place. And right now, if you currently have a home in another market, you probably wouldn’t be anxious to become a prospective buyer in the current climate, right? And just looking at the pricing of things relative to, you know, even if you’re going into a new salary in a new market, what’s that going to look like? So any thoughts on how those things tie together?

 

Marcus [00:13:06]:

Yeah, absolutely. So we get calls like that on occasion where people are sort of trying to figure out how can we assist with someone who may be moving to Newark to take on a position? How can we help them find housing? In some cases, people, you know, they’re looking to buy something and they think, okay, well, the land bank, you guys must have something, right, that we could just sort of purchase. Right. Which is not exactly how our programs work. But given that we are committed to increasing homeownership, we’re always happy to take those type of calls and brainstorm people a little bit about what can be done. You know, I think the interest rate environment is challenging, so we got to figure out some ways to maybe buy down some of those rates. I mean, there are down payment assistance programs which are good. We have a very robust one here in the city of Newark. But I think we got to think a little bit more strategically, maybe be more flexible or maybe just stretch a little bit more. Right. We need to open up some of these opportunities for folks, and maybe it does mean for some defined period of time, we just have to figure out programs to buy down some of these interest rates and then maybe there’s some sort of a reset after five years or so. But I don’t think that we’re going to get back to those super low rates that we all really enjoyed three years ago. So we got to figure out how we address this.

 

Amanda [00:14:31]:

What’s interesting, too, is I’ve also heard that once that does probably not drop to that level, but drop some, it’s going to just create even more demand and going to be other different problems.

 

Marcus [00:14:44]:

Right. It’ll open up another set of things we have to address. I know. Yeah.

 

Amanda [00:14:49]:

So, fun things that you get to spend a lot of your time thinking about and some aspects of that you have more control over than others.

 

Marcus [00:14:56]:

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Amanda [00:14:59]:

So your organization, Invest Newark, has a couple of core priorities that I think are interesting for an EDO, because I feel like so many EDOs are doing so many different important things, but a lot of different things spreading themselves very thin. And you all seem to have a few specific pillars, which I think is an interesting and very effective seems like setup. What are those? And talk more about that.

 

Marcus [00:15:21]:

Yeah, absolutely. So I, you know, what I define as our more traditional economic development work is our business development. We do a lot of support of our local businesses. We offer training. We try to make sure that there’s opportunities for them to connect, whether it’s something that we’re actually sponsoring or not. We do a little bit of lending. We also really just want to see people so that step up a little bit. You know, it’s interesting. When I thought about transitioning into this type of work, I thought not only did I want to sort of address the housing crisis in a different way, but I wanted to be instrumental in, like, bringing and having jobs created here in Newark. And I thought that, you know, the big, big wins, you know, 500 jobs, right. Coming to the city of Newark, you know, big win. But what I quickly realized, it was really brought to my attention, right. It’s like. But, yeah, but there’s like, tons of small businesses, right. If each one of them can employ another person or two people, that means they’re growing and more people are being employed right here in the city that they already work. So that’s a critical piece of what we do as well. Our other big piece is, so Newark is one of maybe three, I think, municipalities has a fiber network that it actually owns. We, a few years ago, peeled off a part of that network and used it to provide broadband for basically city services, but then began to offer it to local businesses. It’s very fast, it’s reliable. We wanted to make it affordable. So we set out to make sure that now anybody in the city of Newark that needs affordable and reliable broadband has it. So we’re expanding the city-owned network to make it available. We have put it in some of our public housing units. We have it in all of our recreation centers. We’re also very instrumental in the affordable connectivity program that has been wildly successful here in Newark. We had over 30,000 households sign up. So we are a little bit different, I think, than most EDOs, but I really think of, yes, we are an EDO, but we’re also a service organization. We’re trying to make life better for people who live here at Newark.

 

Amanda [00:17:51]:

Yeah, I love the local engagement piece of that being incorporated. I think there are so many EDOs that their local community may not even really understand what they’re engaging in. And I just. I love that. And I think there’s so many tie-ins, you know, I always talk about how the same thing from a town attraction standpoint, that people want to move to a place. They’re the same things that people who a lot of times that already live in a place want. You know, like, we all want some of the same things.

 

Marcus [00:18:17]:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yep. And I think. I think we forget about that at times, you know, and I will admit I have to be reminded that as well. You know, when people talk about bringing a new business to town and we’re going to capture all the traffic that’s going to a local arena for a concert, and it’s like, yeah, but what about the people who live here? There’s no concert. They just live here. Right? What about this?

 

Amanda [00:18:42]:

Yeah, you’re so right about that. But the good news is, yeah, a lot of those good things dovetail, you know, what new people would want or the same things people, you have want. And, yeah, just the focus sometimes on talent attraction. But retention is so important, too. Right. What about the people who’ve been in your community, who’ve been invested, you know, making sure that they’re having a really good experience, too. So. Well, I always wrap up with a fun question, but before we hop into that, anything else you’d like to add on this topic?

 

Marcus [00:19:12]:

Yeah, you know, I think that on the housing topic, right. Sometimes I think we maybe get sidetracked by the, even the notion of the affordability, because everybody lives in affordable housing. So, you know, when I make some speeches, I sometimes start with that question. Put your hand up. If you live in affordable housing. I put my hand up and I say, everybody, because we all live where we can afford, right? So I think sometimes we get a little thrown off by “affordable.” The reality is that everybody should have a place to live that’s safe, that’s decent, where they can grow, they can thrive. I just believe everybody wants that and everybody deserves that. We just to figure out, how do you make that happen? You know, I may need different kinds of assistance to get to that point than somebody else, and I think that’s okay. I think we have to keep that in mind. So that’s sort of why I’ve, you know, dedicated my life to this type of work. I really do believe in it, you know, again, we do some different things here at Invest Newark, but, you know, the housing piece is a critical component. I think we’re going to be involved in that for the foreseeable future.

 

Amanda [00:20:21]:

So our fun wrap-up question we always ask our guests. So, of course, you’re based in Newark. Have you been there a long time?

 

Marcus [00:20:27]:

So I’m a New Jersey native and resident and have been. So I’ve been in job about two years, so in Newark every day for about two years now. Yeah.

 

Amanda [00:20:37]:

All right, so if someone were to visit the community, what should they make sure to do? Like bucket list item?

 

Marcus [00:20:44]:

Oh, wow. Well, you definitely have to visit our cherry blossoms. We have a growing downtown. We now call it the arts and education district. We have a fantastic monument to Harriet Tubman, a really beautiful piece of artwork. We have children that come down now for school trips. We have Tots for Tubman. So it’s like really, really, really fun. And then, you know, I guess I say as well, we have, we do have really good dining options, not just in this arts entertainment district, but really all over the place. So Newark’s just a beautiful city. I mean, our wards are unique. We have five wards. They’re all unique, but they all offer something special. I would definitely recommend doing that. And then back to my earlier comment. Yes, I am a big fan of our arena. So we have a fantastic arena downtown. Prudential Center does a great job with it’s program, and you can’t go wrong by coming here to catch a show and stick around for a little dinner.

 

Amanda [00:21:47]:

Sounds like a lot of fun stuff. We get a lot of food and dining comments when I ask that, and I always say, one day I’m going to follow back up with everyone and get a list of restaurants and I’ll be really in-the-know.

 

Marcus [00:21:58]:

Yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We’ve got a good list, a growing list. We do put a restaurant week on every year. This is, I guess this will be our fourth year doing it, I believe, so that’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun.

 

Amanda [00:22:16]:

Well, thank you so much, Marcus, for taking some time today. I think our listeners will get a lot out of this and really appreciate it.

 

Marcus [00:22:22]:

Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.

 

Amanda [00:22:29]:

Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast where we take you inside America’s best cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at [email protected]. Until next time. From Livability, I’m Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America’s most promising places.