INDIANAPOLIS — The rising costs of buying a home are putting many hopeful homeowners out of range.
Here in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, prices are now reaching over $250,000 on average. The average salary for a teacher in the same area is less than $60,000.
Now, there is a new push to help more Black educators into a place they can call home.
Crystal Jackson spends 8 hours a day at Tindley Genesis Academy working with special education students.
"I've been teaching for a while now," Jackson said.
The longtime educator is now in her 14th year of teaching in Indiana. While lesson planning comes easy for Jackson, life planning sometimes doesn't.
"It was really hard to try and work through the programs and financing and things," Jackson said.
The single mother of three has been working to own a home for years.
"It was hard. That's the frustrating part being a single mom, expenses and all that too. Coming up with a down payment for a house."
But thanks to a new local initiative from the EducateMe Foundation called "Teacherville." Jackson is now the proud owner of her first property.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without the Teacherville grant," Jackson said.
"We thought that it would be a good way to increase wealth within the community by working with teachers to get them into homes," said Marshawn Wolley with African American Legacy Fund of Indianapolis.
The organization provided $100,000 to the new initiative.
"To ensure that there would be funding for closing cost and other things that would be necessary to get people through the process," Wolley said.
"Our new house has more room and it's just different being a homeowner," Jackson added.
Those funds and resources her become the first teacher to go through the program and move into a home. Jackson now wants other teachers to know it's possible but just takes time.
"It's hard and it's expensive but it is something that a lot of people really want and it's something that I'm proud of now," Jackson said.
Right now, seven more teachers are going through the program to help get a home. Foundation leaders say they will be moving into the Martindale Brightwood neighborhood once they are done.