From her two-bedroom apartment in West End, LaShon Moon dreamed of owning a home with a white picket fence, a garage and a yard for her 8-year-old son Michael.

        This month her dream came true.

        Ms. Moon, 39, is one of the first Cincinnatians to become a homeowner through “The American Dream Account,” a program sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Housing Opportunities Made Equal.

LaShon Moon and her son Michael, 8, will be moving into this home in Westwood next week with the help of a grant from the American Dream Account. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        NAACP and HOME officials announced Wednesday that Ms. Moon and Josephine Hardy, 40, of Avondale, are the first two applicants to receive funding from the program. The women, both first-time home buyers, received a $2,500 grant toward the purchase of a home.

        “I would never have been able to buy a home without this program,” said Ms. Moon, who moves into her new home in Westwood next week.

        The American Dream Account was spawned from a 1998 lawsuit filed against the Nationwide Insurance Co. by the NAACP and HOME. The organizations challenged the company's practice of not insuring African-Americans. The sides agreed to a settlement in 1999 that included Nationwide paying $750,000 to HOME and the NAACP — money being used to fund the program.

        Karla Irvine, executive director of HOME, said the program is expected to produce at least 300 new homeowners in Hamilton County over the next five to six years. Numbers that will go a long way toward increasing Cincinnati's low 26 percent home ownership rate for African-Americans, she said.

        “Homeownership among African-Americans in this city is horrible,” Ms. Irvine said.

        To be eligible, applicants must be residents of Hamilton County, employed for at least a year and their gross annual household income cannot exceed 80 percent of the county's median family income.

        Ms. Hardy, who had been renting a home in Avondale from one of her two daughters, called the program a godsend. She and her 11-year-old daughter Keneisha plan to move into theirhome in Finneytown July 15.

        Lisa Bouldin-Carter, a spokeswoman for Greater Cincinnati Mortgage Counseling Services — a partner in the program, said more than 130 people have expressed an interest in the program.

       More information: 513-948-8820.

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