We recently welcomed Elizabeth “Beth” Sorce to the team as our new Senior Director of Housing Stability. Beth has extensive experience working in multiple states to support affordable housing and creating access to homeownership, so she is uniquely suited to this role. We had the opportunity to talk with Beth to learn about her passion for creating equitable housing solutions, her vision for housing in Detroit, and how she keeps her family active and engaged during regular hikes.
Rocket Community Fund: In your previous role, you focused on affordable housing across the country. Why is affordable housing so important? What are some of the biggest challenges?
Beth Sorce (ES): For almost 20 years, I’ve been working to eliminate the racial wealth gap in this country. Because homeownership is the primary way that people build wealth in the United States, housing stability is imperative. Stable housing is a human right and it’s the primary pathway to building generational wealth.
But many people mistakenly believe that once someone becomes a homeowner, the wealth just magically follows. That’s simply not true. You can’t build wealth through homeownership if you’re at risk of losing your home to tax foreclosure, or if there are significant repair issues in your home that you can’t afford to address, or if you have tangled title on your property that prohibits you from accessing resources or passing your home down to the next generation. And if you’re a renter, you can’t even dream of purchasing a home if you’re fearing eviction or if your monthly rent is more than you can afford.
RCF: What are some of the things you’re most excited about tackling in your new role with Rocket Community Fund?
ES: I’m most excited to work alongside the Housing Stability team and our community partners to continue identifying the root causes of housing instability and then chipping away at them one by one. At Rocket Companies, we have an ISM (or core value) that states “the inches that we need are all around us” and I really believe that is true. We’re not going to be able to eradicate all the systemic causes of the racial wealth gap all at once. But by working together to find the inches, they’ll start to add up, and that’s when we’ll gain meaningful ground.
RCF: What stands out to about the work that Rocket Community Fund has already done around housing stability?
ES: To me, it’s the Rocket Community Fund’s resident-centered approach. In Detroit, we rely on our Neighbor to Neighbor survey data to show us how housing needs in the city are evolving. We use that resident-powered data to guide our investments and help us understand when, where and how we need to pivot our approach alongside the need. That kind of resident-focused insight has been so impactful in Detroit that we’ve been able to replicate the Neighbor to Neighbor program in Cleveland, Atlanta and Milwaukee. And that approach carries through everything that the Rocket Community Fund does. For example, we learned that many homeowners who are eligible for a property tax exemption through the HOPE program—a key tool in our housing stability toolbox—weren’t aware of the opportunity. So, we started working with community partners to make sure that homeowners knew about the program. Then, we engaged with our partners to make the application process as easy and as accessible for homeowners as possible, especially since many applicants are senior households. Now, because participating in Homeowners Property Tax Exemption (HOPE) opens up eligibility for so many other programs that can help increase housing stability, we’re working to streamline various application and approval processes so that homeowners will be able to access more of the tools and resources that are available to them. We always start by considering what a complex system looks like from the resident perspective and then we work collaboratively to simplify it.
RCF: As a newcomer to Detroit, what excites you most about the city?
ES: I’ve been asking everyone I meet to tell me about where they live. I’m sure it comes as no surprise– Detroiters are passionate about their neighborhoods and that passion is contagious! It’s so fun to hear people talk about their home, where they like to eat, their favorite park, where they shop for groceries, everything. But mostly, I love to hear the stories people tell about their neighbors and how everyone watches out for each other. I’m excited to be part of a community that cares deeply about where they live and invests deeply in the people around them.
RCF: We’ve heard you love hiking with your family. What’s your favorite part about this activity and what trails in Michigan are you looking forward to exploring? How do you keep your kids engaged?
ES: Hikes along creeks or rivers are my favorite. My kids love finding spots to throw rocks and scramble around on the boulders. When they start getting tired, my husband and I take turns running ahead and hiding Skittles along the trail to bribe them to go a little farther. But my family is excited to switch gears and become lake people! We just got into paddleboarding this summer and are hoping to do that more. We are absolutely looking for recommendations of where to go— so please share! It’s never too early to start dreaming of next summer (I hear this is a critical strategy for surviving Michigan winters).
