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Sunday, October 3, 1999
Local programs give families a shot at their dream homes
By James A. Suydam
Caller-Times
If you need help
To find out if you qualify for a home rehabilitation loan, an emergency repair grant, the homebuyer program or the mortgage credit certificate program, call the city's Housing and Community Developement Department at 880-3045.
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When the windows of Marshall Bell's boyhood home in Molina began to leak when it rained, he didn't know how he could possibly afford the repairs. So the 52-year-old disabled father of two turned to the city's Housing and Community Development Department for help.
He's still amazed at just how much help he received.
"I was just looking for maybe $300 to $400 to patch up my house," said Bell. "They tore down my house and built a new one."
Bell is one of more than 4,500 people to benefit from a federally financed, city-run program in operation since 1976. That program, along with a program established in 1986, has helped thousands of people who might not otherwise be able to own or repair a home.
Marvin Scott also is grateful for the programs.
For the past five years, Scott, a former X-ray technician, has been confined to a wheelchair since a stroke left him a paraplegic.
Still, he's managed to hang on to his childhood home even after his father died. But household repairs were more than he could keep up with on the $500 per month he receives from the government.
"The roof started to leak, and there were some rotten floor boards in the bathroom," Scott said.
Scott qualified for $6,500 in emergency repair grants from the Corpus Christi Community Improvement Corporation, money that paid for repairs ranging from a new roof to a new sewer line. Workers also built him a new wheelchair ramp and added central heat, he said.
"The guys that got the work spent every little bit of that $6,500, and then I think they did some extra," Scott said. "It's hard to say, to put into words, exactly how much that meant to me."
Pride and savings
Pride of ownership, and the values that come with it, are the goals of two programs: The Corpus Christi Community Improvement Corporation, which was created in 1976, and the Corpus Christi Housing Finance Corporation, established in 1986. It also may be the key behind the fact that the percentage of those who default on their loans through the program is less than that of the private market, city officials said.
"We have a miniscule default rate, less than one half of one percent," said Assistant City Manager Tom Utter, who oversees the program. "In the private market, it's more than double that."
"We service our own loans, if people run into problems, we go out and we talk with them and we work it out. It's just worked beautifully over the years," Utter said.
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| David Adame/Caller-Times |
| Paraplegic Marvin Scott received $6,500 to repair his roof and his sewer line and purchase a new central heating unit for his childhood home. The Corpus Christi Community Improvement Corporation donated the funds. |
The Corpus Christi Housing Finance Corporation assists those who qualify to receive mortgage credits for making monthly house payments.
"It allows qualifying individuals to take 25 percent of the interest they pay on their home loan as a direct dollar-for-dollar tax credit," Utter said.
Since 1986, more than $300,000,000 worth of mortgages have benefited from this tax credit in Corpus Christi. The program has benefited more than 3,300 families.
The Corpus Christi Community Improvement Corporation oversees home rehabilitation, emergency repair and first-time homebuyer programs. The corporation is financed with federal grant money and with about $800,000 per year in loan repayments.
Bell and his children, 12-year-old Jonathan and 10-year-old Brianna, were the recipients of about $36,000 in grants and low-interest loans through the home rehabilitation program.
When Bell's mother died, he took possession of the home. But when the former Corpus Christi Army Depot supply clerk became disabled, he could not maintain the up keep of the aging wooden frame home.
"It was a godsend," Bell said.
Qualifications vary for the different programs. For example, based on income, a family of three with an annual income of less than $18,250 could qualify for up to $6,500 in emergency repair grants. Local growth, local benefits
Since 1976, Utter has served as the general manager of the organization, whose board is composed of the city council. Since its inception, Utter has watched the corporation generate more than $24 million and helped repair 4,500 homes and apartments.
"As of the end of July, this corporation had a net value of $18.6 million," Utter said. "Absolutely no local funds go into that."
Prompted by calls from President Bill Clinton and then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros in 1996 to make more Americans homeowners, Utter set a new goal for the two corporations.
"We wanted to assist 4,000 units by the end of 2000. By July (1999), we had assisted 3,106," Utter said. "That's more than $59 million in assistance in just three years."
"After all, that's the real American dream - home ownership," Utter said. "Home ownership stabilizes the family, it lets them put down roots - there are so many benefits."
The programs also help stimulate the local economy, said Foster Edwards, chief administrator for the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors.
"We appreciate the city doing it, because, obviously, first-time home buyers in low-income ranges need help to get into a house," Edwards said.
And when someone buys a house, a real estate agent earns a commission, a mortgage company takes its cut and a chain of transactions begin.
"For instance, the person who sold that house gets the income, which they might use to buy another home," Edwards said. ""This is your house"
And for Juan Bautista, the city's federally funded housing program means a future for his young family.
Bautista, 20, his wife Veronica, 21, and their 5-month-old son recently qualified for a $3,000 forgivable loan to help purchase their first home. For each year the couple stays in their new home, a portion of the loan is forgiven. After five years, the full $3,000 will be forgiven.
"Without it, I'd still be living in apartments, paying way too much," said Bautista, a bank teller.
"Now, I've got something that I can work for, and it's mine," he said. "I want to make sure I can tell my son when he's older, 'This is your house.' "
Staff writer James A. Suydam can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail at suydamj@caller.com
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