How rent payments can upgrade credit and become a pathway to homeownership

Homeownership has long been regarded as one of the most important milestones in American life. To own a home means more than putting a roof over one’s head — it’s establishing a place to gather and grow one’s family — and the equity plants the seeds for generational wealth.

Owning a home is a dream that many Detroiters, despite an unrivaled work ethic, are not able to realize due to either low credit scores or no credit history at all.

Rocket Community Fund, in partnership with the Credit Builders Alliance, is working to change that — with a pilot program that uses on-time rent payments to build the credit score needed to purchase a home.

“Rent reporting is an opportunity for those who have been excluded to have a seat at the table,” said Dara Duguay, CEO of Credit Builders Alliance. For more than a decade, the national nonprofit has piloted positive-only rent reporting programs across the U.S.