A $10,000 grant helped Charmira Pilgram close on a home in West Oak Lane after she and her husband struggled to cover the costs of buying a house for their family of seven. The assistance came through a reparations initiative launched in 2022 by Green Street Monthly Meeting, a Quaker congregation in Germantown. The congregation has pledged $500,000 over 10 years, or $50,000 annually, to racial-justice efforts, including homeownership support for Black families. The meeting recently gave $50,000 to birdSEED, a nonprofit focused on down-payment assistance and housing justice. The contribution is expected to provide five families with grants of $10,000 each. Pilgram said the purchase was nearly derailed when she did not have the money needed to close. Becoming a homeowner, she said, had been a long-held dream and could help build generational wealth for her family. Lucy Duncan, founder of the meeting’s Reparations Committee, said members wanted to put the congregation’s resources in line with its commitments to racial justice. She also described the work as a response to Quaker history, which includes both enslavement and abolitionism. The congregation’s housing work extends beyond purchase assistance. It has also backed efforts to help people at risk of losing inherited family properties because of tangled titles. Duncan said the effort has helped stabilize housing wealth, though she did not specify a unit for the figure cited. Green Street Monthly Meeting has separately contributed $50,000 to causes connected to Black maternal health. Leaders say the initiative has prompted other Quaker congregations to consider establishing reparations programs of their own.