It’s National Homeownership Month, a time to recognize the importance of homeownership. It may look a little different now, but for many, it is still the American Dream and a path to achieving generational wealth. Today, we share Dawson Bowcut's journey to homeownership.
If you listen carefully when passing by a blue twin home in Bonneville Commons, a 26-home development in Pocatello, Idaho, you can hear the sound of metal on metal coming from the covered garage.
Inside, Dawson Bowcut, a master craftsman, twists another bolt, part of the intricate work of rebuilding a beloved Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. He wipes away sweat with a satisfied smile and an occasional grunt. A homeowner for less than a year Bowcut sometimes can’t believe that he’s living the American Dream.
“I mean, it feels amazing,” he said by phone after a long day of work. “It was kind of, I don't know about dream come true, but pretty much like a dream come true.” 
Bowcut’s homeownership journey started on a cold night in January. Each evening, he drove home from work at a discount tire shop, passing by the construction site where Bonneville Elementary School – vacant for 17 years – had been torn down by NeighborWorks Pocatello. The nonprofit is one of the dozens of housing developers in the NeighborWorks network that builds affordable single-family homes and rental apartments.
“I’d drive by and see pictures on signs, what the homes would look like, and I’d think, ‘man, it looks like they're going to turn that into a really nice place.’ I wondered about it,” Bowcut said.
He lived in a rental home just two blocks away, and watched the development take place every day. One night after weeks of watching the land go from flat and vacant, to dotted with actual houses, curiosity stirred in him. He wanted to know more about the development that, according to NeighborWorks Pocatello Executive Director Mark Dahlquist, represents an $8 million investment in the local economy.
“I would try to look at the sign that was posted to see what it actually said, but I could never really see it,” Bowman said. “I was always driving by at a time like super dark, so I couldn't see the sign very well. But one night, I finally decided I was going to stop and go look and see, to try to find a little more detail about it.”
Daytime high temperatures are usually in the mid-30s in Pocatello in January. At night, when Bowcut was traveling home, he stepped from the warmth of the car into frigid air in the teens. The sign was hard to read, so he had to get close, his breath a visible cloud in the wan light.
“I saw the sign and it said NeighborWorks. It was a NeighborWorks project. I'd never heard of NeighborWorks until that point, so I went home and immediately pulled up the website,” Bowcut said.
Like most first-time buyers with little savings and no experience with the homebuying process, Bowcut couldn’t imagine the twists and turns of the process or if he’d qualify. According to a NeighborWorks America survey, 51% of adult renters believe there is a lack of first-time homebuyer programs available to them.
NeighborWorks Pocatello has a strong consumer website, and an active social media presence. Bowcut found an informative video about how financing works for a NeighborWorks Pocatello home.
“I'm thinking I'm not in a situation where I can afford a home or even buy a home or anything like that. But Heather explained things.”
Heather is Heather Burt-Gross, director of lending and counseling at NeighborWorks Pocatello. She and her team got to work putting together a mortgage package that would make it possible for Bowcutt to buy a home. But it wouldn’t be easy.
“Dawson needed a set of down payment assistance products to make the purchase affordable, including help with getting the right paperwork related to his student loan debt that he was already in the process of consolidating,” Burt-Gross said.
Piecing together the puzzle
The puzzle pieces from the primary lender, the Idaho Housing Finance Association and Bowcut’s student loan servicer had to fit perfectly. The most critical piece was the student loan.
Without clarity on how much Bowcut was required to pay under his student loan agreement, the income he earned would be insufficient to qualify for the mortgage. That would make the purchase impossible. Hearing this news was hard on him; the amount of time he had to fix the problem was even harder: He had only the weekend to figure things out. “I knew that was it,” Bowcut said.
Frantic, he made a call to Heather, who helped him understand what he needed to do. By some miracle, he reached student loan services, even on the weekend. “And I mean, everything just lined up perfectly. I got the paperwork turned in on Monday morning.”
Bowcut was approved for his mortgage later that day. Now he could afford a NeighborWorks Pocatello home developed and priced with a buyer like him in mind.
NeighborWorks Pocatello develops housing and communities like many nonprofit organizations, by working hand in glove with local government and seeking out multiple layers of financing so that homebuyers and renters can afford a place to call home, where they can build the best life for themselves and their families.
The original plan for Bonneville Commons envisioned 16 homes, but NeighborWorks Pocatello’s Dahlquist had his eyes set on possibly more. Having built homes in the region for years cooperatively with local government, he, along with Matthew Adams of The Land Group, Inc., approached Pocatello’s city government for flexibility with density.
“The city of Pocatello made modifications to their infill zoning codes, actually changing them not only for our project, but altering them in a way that will benefit other projects in the future in certain parts of town,” Dahlquist said. “This change to the zoning codes allowed us to create a denser development, which allowed us to better spread out our infrastructure costs.”
Without the zoning codes, they would have been able to construct 16 homes at $116,588 per lot. The zoning change allowed them to construct 26 homes at $71,746 per lot. “Obviously that was a cost savings for us, and it also allowed us to provide a housing opportunity for 10 additional households.”
Not only did the zoning code change allow NeighborWorks Pocatello to build more affordable homes, it opened the possibility to layout the houses in such a way that the builder could include a commons area with a gathering space for the residents which includes a nice pergola.
“Had the zoning code change not happened, we would have had to place all of our houses very uniformly on long, skinny lots, so the change allowed us to create not only a denser development, but one that was aesthetically pleasing,” Dahlquist explained.
Turns out, the neighborhood pergola, part of the Bonneville Commons aesthetic was also a part of Bowcut’s home financing journey.
“I was required to put in some sweat equity,” he explained. Part of Bowcut’s financing package included funds from the SHOP program administered by Community Frameworks, a NeighborWorks network affiliate based in Spokane, Washington.
“The community put up a pergola, just plain wood that needed sanding and painting. Things that I could do as part of my sweat equity contribution,” Bowcut said. “I helped put in swings attached to the pergola that the community can enjoy, especially my own kids.”
Bowcut has two children, a boy and a girl, who love the neighborhood and the new porch swings.
“When we think about home, we think about family and about kids playing,” said Noelle Melton, vice president of homeownership programs at NeighborWorks America. “Finding ways for homebuyers like Dawson to afford a home and sustainably stay in that home, where his children can play that is what a nonprofit housing developer d
oes every day.”
Now with a home of his home that he can afford and that his family can enjoy, Bowcut – who was able to finish his sweat equity hours by working on the drywall and painting inside the garage – spends most nights in that garage.
The home and garage look fantastic, the pergola is stained and finished. “I mean, it looks amazing. And yeah, just to say that I got to help be a part of that, you know, I got to be a part of the house that I'm living in now ...
He and his family are grateful. “My mom especially, and it's just been a great thing for my life. For me again, just a fresh start, fresh house. And, you know, looking forward to what life has next – because this has just been a dream come true.”
