Owning a home is a dream that is shared by many young couples. A place to call their own and a place to raise a family is a dream that can be realized by carefully budgeting and saving money for the down payment and closing costs and the upcoming mortgage payments. One South Dakota couple has realized their dream and purchased their first home with a little help from a program called the Dakota Dream Savings Fund. The Dakota Dream Savings Fund helped this young couple turn their $4,000 in hard earned savings into a $16,000 down payment on the first home that the two can call their own.
Brent and Brianna Burden are a young couple from Chamberlain who heard about a new program called the Dakota Dream Savings Fund and were immediately skeptical. Brianna wrote the program off as a scam from the beginning, but Brent did some research and made phone calls to determine that there really is a program that will match every dollar, up to $2,000, that is deposited into a special savings account with three more dollars to use towards purchasing a first time home, starting or expanding a small business or pursuing secondary education.
“It just sounded too good to be true,” Brent said.
“I was totally skeptical. If Brent hadn’t pursued it, I would have never thought twice about the program,” Brianna added.
Brent and Brianna had been considering buying the home that they had been house sitting, and when they found a program that could help them come up with extra cash to put towards the purchase, they decided to just go for it.  They contacted Kaylene Marts, Dakota Dream Development Specialist with the Rural Office of Community Services, Inc. in Lake Andes to find out what they needed to do to become part of this exciting new program. After completing the application process and getting approved for the program, Brent and Brianna both opened and began putting money away in their special Dakota Dreams savings accounts at their local bank to be used towards their home purchase.
The Dakota Dream Savings Fund has also helped the Burden’s out by providing financial education courses that must be completed according to the guidelines for the program.  They each completed the Money Smart course online provided by the FDIC as well as completed 10 hours each of asset specific financial education.
“The Money Smart course was pretty helpful. It teaches you about credit and loans and keeping your finances organized,” Brent said.
He added that they learned more than they could have imagined about the legalities of home ownership like insurance, taxes, boundaries and city and county ordinances.
Brent owns an internet business and also works part time for a plumber in town and Brianna works part time for a boutique/flower shop on Main Street. By carefully budgeting their income, they were able to save $2,000 each and the program matched their $4,000 for a total of $16,000 to use toward their down payment on their new home.
“We are so thankful for this program, to Kaylene for all her help in this process and to Jesus for leading us to our home,” Brent concluded.
“We knew we wanted to own a home, we just didn’t know how we were going to get there. This program really helped and we know we wouldn’t have been able to buy our home on our own,” Brianna said.
The Dakota Dream Savings Fund has helped one young couple in Chamberlain, South Dakota realize their dream of owning a home in a small community and gave them a place to put down roots. The program is available across the state through one of the four Community Action Agencies located in Lake Andes, Rapid City, Sisseton and Madison. A limited number of participant openings are available and more information can be obtained by visiting www.dakotadreamsavingsfund.org for contact information and service area coverage.
Funding for the program is provided by the Northwest Area Foundation, the South Dakota Community Foundation, Citibank, the South Dakota Housing Authority, Assets for Independence federal grant and the Bush Foundation.

Dakota Dream Development Specialist Kaylene Marts with the Burden's and their combined savings and match funds for their new home purchase.

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