The two-story red brick house was the second one 22-year-old Anthony Bradford ever toured. But the moment he walked through the door, he knew it was where he wanted to settle.
Weeks later, with a $90,000 forgivable loan from the city of St. Paul, Bradford closed on the $229,000 house. It sits not far from where Bradford's great-great-grandfather once owned a duplex that was torn down to make way for Interstate 94.
Bradford is the first person to receive down payment assistance from St. Paul's Inheritance Fund, a program launched earlier this year with the goal of rebuilding wealth lost by displaced residents of St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood.
More than 700 homes and 300 businesses were razed in the 1950s and 1960s, when the highway ripped through the hub of St. Paul's Black community. Many received payments from the state far less than the values of their homes, and racial covenants and discriminatory loan practices made it difficult for some Black families to buy houses in other parts of the city.
Mayor Melvin Carter, whose grandfather lost several commercial properties in Rondo, points to a 2020 study that estimates the community lost $157 million in home equity.
"While we've offered public apologies for the destruction of Old Rondo … we know that words cannot replace what was lost to the construction of I-94," the mayor said. "We can't undo those historical wrongs. But what we can do is to provide descendants of Old Rondo, like Mr. Bradford, the opportunity to reclaim that lost value."
Loan requests flood in
The Inheritance Fund allows former Rondo residents and their descendants to apply for two types of loans: up to $110,000 in down payment assistance or up to $80,000 for home rehabs.
