Tuesday, December 28, 1999
$2,500 grants to aid home buyers
New program begins soon
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Two organizations will unveil a program in January that aims to increase Cincinnati's black family home ownership rate of 26 percent.
The American Dream Accounts Program includes an incentive grant that's tied to a family's willingness to save for a down payment, and classes on financial literacy and long-term home ownership responsibilities.
A minimum savings of $1,000 will earn $2,500 housing grants for up to 300 households.
The groups, the Cincinnati NAACP chapter and the fair housing advocates Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), will contribute the total amount of $750,000 in earned housing grants. The organizations are awaiting written commitments from Community Investment Act officers at area banks to cover the program's administration and counseling costs.
“The lack of homeownership contributes to a great deal of instability in households, neighborhoods and the entire community,” said Johnathan Holifield, a civil rights lawyer and vice president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Participants must live in one of several Cincinnati and Hamilton County communities to be eligible. Earned housing grants will be awarded for home purchases only in Hamilton County.
A participating household must not earn more than 80 percent of Hamilton County's median household income of $40,335, or $32,268.
Participants also must commit to a savings goal and make a minimum monthly deposit of $40. The grant can be used only as a down payment on a home.
“Our program is important because owning a home is how most people accumulate wealth. People use home equity loans to start a business,” said Karla Irvine, executive director of HOME.
“Our program will educate people in banking and financial services. If they get into a habit of working with a bank and saving, they'll build relationships there.”
The American Dream program will employ the expertise of existing organizations. Neighborhood Housing Services will administer the accounts, and Greater Cincinnati Mortgage Counseling Service will lead the economic literacy and homeownership classes.
American Dream participants are required to complete a 12-hour (four sessions) homeownership training class upon opening an account. Participants must then complete a one-year course that covers employment, budgeting, credit, savings, economic planning, time management and related topics.
HOME and the NAACP estimate that their joint $750,000 program investment will have a $22 million economic impact.
“We're going to encourage more savings and more stability,” Ms. Irvine said. “We want people to have a reserve, so if the furnace goes out or the roof leaks, they can handle it.”
Cincinnati's 26 percent rate of black home ownership is much lower than the national rate of African-Americans who own their homes, 46 percent.
The program also could provide a boost to Cincinnati, which has an overall homeownership rate of 38 percent, compared to 65 percent nationally.
The American Dream Accounts Program is taken from the individual development account model, created by the federal and state governments as part of welfare reform legislation to help low-income people buy a home, go to school or start a business.
The NAACP/HOME program will focus on homeownership as the best way to stabilize low-income neighborhoods and communities.
Security boosted for festivities
Dad, 2 daughters die in Brown Co. blaze
Aid pours in for fire victims in Butler Co.
1963 forecast for the end of century still reads like science fiction
Ohio: We're Y2K ready
Snow, ice imperil drivers
Clinton lauds judge's poetry
New Year's Evening dress
Teacher dies after car runs her down
Turning the page to 2000
$2,500 grants to aid home buyers
Bartenders testify in DUI case
Butler board OKs hike in 2000 budget
Butler history, industry linked
Complaint against mayor to be examined
Help for flood victims trickles
Teardown may revive plaza
$13.3M to fund road, sewer work
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST
