| By JOSH KAUFMAN The blessing of their newborn girl Brittney
made Marcus Diaz and Tina Smith long for something more. They dreamed of their own home,
and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Officer Next Door
Program turned a Tudor house in St. Albans into their own home sweet home.
First-time home owner Marcus Diaz of St. Albans said he felt
"lucky" to have the chance to move into his dream home with help from a federal
revitalization program.
PRESS Photo By Ira Cohen |
Innovative plans such as the
"Teacher Next Door" and the "Officer Next Door Programs" are not only
paving the way toward homeownership, but are helping to revitalize neighborhoods, a
spokesperson for HUD explained. These programs allow teachers and police officers to get a
50-percent discount when buying a house in the communities they work in, the spokesperson
explained.
"I’m a corrections officer and at
first I wasn’t sure if I would qualify for the "Officer Next Door Program."
The union looked into it and we got into the lottery," said Diaz.
Diaz and Smith won the lottery for the
house of their choice.
"I think we were very lucky,"
said Smith. "We closed on January 5th and moved in on February 22nd."
"This is our first experience buying a
house," said Diaz. "Through the HUD program I got the house at 50 percent
off."
The property was valued at $140,000, but
enrollment into the HUD program enabled the young couple to get it for $70,000 – a
mortgage Diaz calls "rent-like."
"HUD tries to help revitalize areas.
[St. Albans] is a nice up and coming neighborhood," added Diaz. "The house
didn’t need much work and you can’t beat the discount. The paperwork only took
about a month or two to finish."
Ghire Shivprased, another success story,
took advantage of HUD in the acquisition of a two-family house, only 10 blocks from his
previous residence in South Ozone Park.
"HUD provided a list of properties
from which to choose from," said Shivprased. "I put in an application and it was
approved in a week. HUD gave me an $8,500 credit on closing costs."
Shivprased said that the HUD property he
recently closed on in the vicinity of 122 Street and Linden Avenue cost $177,000.
"It’s an excellent program. HUD
helps people get houses below cost," said Shivprased. "Even after repairs you
come thousands of dollars under what you would pay for regular service through banks and
with lawyers."
Neighborhood Housing
Services (NHS) works closely with HUD to help people qualify for home ownership.
It was started in Jamaica’s Baisley
Park area in 1974 by a group of residents and bankers because the banks were not
reinvesting in the community. It is a non-profit entity that informs, helps, and even
contributes to funding for first-time homebuyers in low and middle income areas, according
to NHS officials.
In addition, NHS sponsors programs and
seminars to better educate perspective buyers on the dangerous waters of real estate
— before swimming with the real estate sharks.
With direct access to lenders, NHS is able
to enlist the participation of banks that are committed to increase ownership
opportunities.
Cathy Mickens, head of the NHS office in
Jamaica, described several plans that NHS offers. The "Home Maintenance Project"
teaches people how to take care of property, and has been so successful that it is now
replicated throughout the country.
NHS is able to solicit money directly from
the government through the Home Grant Program, which now boasts a $400,000 budget. This
funding enables NHS to give $20,000 grants to 20 homebuyers at the closing of the
property. The recipients of these grants are required to live in that property for five
years, said Mickens.
The First Home Club deals with matching
funds from various lenders. Candidates for new homes can receive three dollars for every
one dollar they save to a maximum of $5,000.
Another program involves renovating
properties and then putting them into a lottery. The properties will be sold to the
lottery winners. This program helps fight overcrowding, said Mickens.
For people with major credit problems, NHS
offers a schedule of sessions, ranging from three to four months, and sometimes as long as
10 months. This program helps people get out of the credit ditch, said Mickens, as
perspective homebuyers learn how to eliminate their debt.
To contact HUD for further information,
call (212) 264-8000.
To get in touch with NHS, call Sandra Hope,
housing counselor, at 291-7400.
| What HUD Means to Southeast
Queens |
By CHARLIE KING
Secretary’s Representative for
New York and New Jersey
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Andrew Cuomo, has made neighborhood revitalization,
job creation, fighting housing discrimination, and creating affordable housing his top
priorities.
This past March I became the HUD
Secretary’s Representative for New York and New Jersey. I view this as a very
important job in which I can play a crucial role in the loves of thousands of people in
both states.
Although we are now in the
new millennium, regrettably, housing discrimination continues to exist. There is no higher
urgency for Cuomo than battling this problem. His first order of business was to put teeth
into the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by moving aggressively after landlords who were found to
discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or familial
status. As a result, HUD has taken twice as many enforcement actions as the Department did
two years ago.
Homes like this one in Springfield Garden are being made more
affordable thanks to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
|
Besides housing discrimination,
minority groups also must guard themselves against predatory lending, which HUD studies
are showing to be skyrocketing in predominately black and low-income communities. In fact,
we have found that subprime loans are five times more likely in black neighborhoods than
in white areas. Predatory lending takes place when lenders engage in abusive lending
practices that can hit homebuyers with excessive mortgage fees, interest rates, loan
flipping, or home improvement scams that can raise the cost of homeownership for families.
People will use subprime lenders when the conventional prime market is closed off to them
because of credit problems.
To look at this problem more closely, Cuomo
has just convened a Task Force on Predatory Lending and is holding hearings around the
country. The hearing in New York City was held on Friday, May 12. Joining Cuomo was
Senator Charles Schumer, and Treasury Assistant Secretary Gregory Baer. We expect that
this summer, HUD and Treasury will issue a joint report with recommendations on how to
address this problem.
Thanks to the strong
economy, characterized by full employment and low interest rates, there are now over six
million African Americans who own homes. In fact, 40 percent of all new homeowners are
minorities. In Southeast Queens, HUD has funded numerous housing counseling agencies, such
as Jamaica Housing Improvement, Inc., Margaret Community Corporation, and the Rockaway
Development and Revitalization Corporation, to provide residents with information on the
homebuying process. These programs have aided hundreds of potential homebuyers, avoid the
pitfalls of homeownership.
Southeast Queens has many communities
designated as revitalization areas, which HUD defines as low- and moderate-income
neighborhoods that have many vacant properties and HUD foreclosed homes, but may be
considered good candidates for economic development and improvement.
The listing of HUD-owned homes in Southeast
Queens and New York City is available on the internet at www.hud.gov. This is HUD’s
website and we encourage everyone to view the site for important information about HUD
programs and services.
Since HUD was created in 1965, one of its primary missions
has been to provide decent, safe and affordable housing to all citizens. This has been
accomplished by providing the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) with almost $1
billion in annual funding. In Southeast Queens, NYCHA has twelve public housing
developments, totaling 5,958 dwelling units. The developments in the area are Arverne
Houses, Baisley Park, Beach 41st Street, Carleton Manor, LIHFE Towers, Edgemere, Hammel
Houses, International Towers, Redfern, Shelton, Jamaica I and Jamaica II. HUD funding to
these developments, which has totaled $137 million, have been used to upgrade and
rehabilitate these buildings. |
