Own Your Home. Own Your Future.

Homeownership is one of the primary ways Americans build the wealth that allows them to weather life’s unpredictable moments and pass on assets to the next generation. The Dearfield Fund – a Gary venture – makes the dream of homeownership a reality by providing down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers who have faced systemic barriers to owning a home.

In 1910, Oliver “O.T.” Jackson, joined by his wife and seven other Black families, set out to establish Colorado’s first Black homestead – Dearfield. The land was harsh and the future unknown, but this small group of pioneers was in search of life, liberty and happiness. O.T. was a businessman-turned-farmer who believed that in order for Black people to own their future, they must own land and property.

Visiting the historic site of Dearfield today – where just three structures remain of a town that once boasted 300 families, a school, two churches and a restaurant – you can’t help but imagine the ingenuity, innovation, hope and determination embedded in the hearts of people who traversed uncharted territory for the opportunity to own a piece of the American dream. More than a century later, the Dearfield name and O.T.’s vision live on in the Dearfield Fund.

Channeling the ingenuity of Dearfield’s first homesteaders, the Dearfield Fund, a concessionary private equity fund by Gary Ventures, Inc., quietly launched in July 2021 with a single loan for $40,000 in down-payment assistance. In the next two years, the community behind this movement – impact investors, asset allocators and allies – invested $13 million in homeowners from communities that have faced systemic barriers to opportunity, allowing Dearfield to help first-time homebuyers close on more than 230 homes.