Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization launched by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse Priscilla Chan, has recently been playing a significant role in supporting educational efforts across the globe.
But, this time around, they’re trying to curb a problem close to home and have decided to launch a $5 million fund in collaboration with Landed to enable educators and their support staff to fund their accommodation via down payment support. The Y Combinator-backed startup has come with a solution to prevent teachers from switching between jobs due to accommodation issues.
Landed’s model is super simple and aimed at making it a little easier for families to step into homeownership, which requires them to shell out 20 percent down payment when buying the house. This could be a humongous amount to collect so Landed steps in the scene as the helper you require. It will pay up to half of the 20% home down payment
Under its existing model, it will pay up to half of the 20% home down payment for contributors to our society, here teachers, with zero interest or monthly payments. The rest half of the down payment and ownership charges will have to be taken care of the one who buys the house. Landed secures its return on investment when you sell or refinance the house. It takes 25 percent cut over the current value of the property — even if it has depreciated or appreciated.
Talking about the collaborative effort, Landed CEO Jonathan Asmis in a statement said:
While making housing more accessible will require many approaches, we hope this kind of down payment support will help to make it a little easier for great educators to stay and build successful careers in the region.
Under its partnership with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the startup looks forward to helping fund the housing costs of 60 educators in three districts near the Facebook’s headquarters. These collaborators have picked Redwood City, Ravenswood City, and Sequoia Union High School because of the super-high rates of accommodation in these regions. This will enable the cohort of educators, as well as other staff members to find and fund suitable housing near the school — instead of travelling from far away.
Talking about this partnership, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in a statement mentions:
Our hope is that our partnership with Landed will help create a sustainable model to help make homeownership a reality for more educators and others at risk of getting priced out of the communities they serve.
As for the profits earned on the investments made by Landed, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has mentioned that they’ll not take any cuts from the same. Instead, all revenue collected or lost in the process will be returned to the fund set up by the organization. The said initiative is not the only one that has been taken by the philanthropic organization to improve the quality of education.
With regards to the same, it has acquired Meta, an AI-powered search engine for sifting through research papers and related data. This platform has been opened for access to all for free, without boundations, to provide access to latest research info to scientists from across the globe. It has also driven an investment into India-based edu-tech platform BYJU’s, which aims to change how the students interact and learn using hand-held devices. It combines world-class teachers, proven methods, innovative technology and data science to deliver a personalized learning experience to students in classes 4 to 12.
