Now Is The Time For Us To Swing This Pendulum Back To The Middle! (Part 3 of 3 – Low-to-Very Low Income Buyers)

Okay Non-Profit Affordable Housing Developers, I'm throwing down the gauntlet for you! Are you really utilizing the many funding sources available to you? Why is it that one affordable housing developer builds 10 or more homes per year, and another 1 home per year?

Oregon Habitat for Humanity Affiliates and Community Development Corporations, this one is to help you get more of our low to very low income residents into housing. Here you go!

Plan A - Help every one of your homeowners apply for the Oregon Purchase Assistance Loan of $10,000. For Habitat for Humanity and USDA Self-Help homeowners, their sweat-equity hours earn them $10 per hour to be used to meet their required contribution under this program. I know that Habitat for Humanity homeowners have their "A Mortgage" and their "B Mortgage", with the "A" covering the bulk of their costs to build, but limited to the amount the homeowner can afford to pay based on their individual income, and the "B" covering the difference. How about reducing your "B Mortgage balances", balances that have been creeping up due to the higher land and materials costs you have been facing while area incomes stay low? Are you utilizing the Oregon Purchase Assistance Loan, a zero interest loan with no monthly payments, to bear some of that "B Mortgage" overage? I'll bet the Habitat for Humanity Affiliates that are building more homes per year are using it!

Plan B - Build your relationships with your local banks. With the slowing of the housing market and the elimination of many programs needed for first time home buyers to buy, my guess is the banks are no where near meeting their Community Reinvestment Act requirements. Have you applied for CRA grants from your local banks on every home you build? You will find that if you build these relationships, you have very supportive funding partners. It wasn't long ago that GMAC Mortgage was advertising they were funding entire Habitat homes!

Plan C - Is your Non-Profit Community Development Corporation or Habitat for Humanity Affiliate an experienced, well-oiled machine? Have you cultivated your local bank relationships, and found a strong supporter amongst them? Is that bank a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board? The Federal Home Loan Bank Board has an Affordable Housing Grant program that is a competitive grant. You must have a member bank sponsor your grant request, and after looking at their 2007 annual grant recipients list it seems the larger projects receive more awards, so those projects must score higher. Put your well-oiled machine to work, stretch your limits and take on a larger project!

Wouldn't it be nice to layer $10,000 per unit Oregon Purchase Assistance Loans and an FHLB Affordable Housing Grant for $30,000 per unit, with your local Community Development Block Grant for your infrastructure and land expense? Bet you'll find some Private Foundations willing to match your community's funding support, too. Need help raising funds in your community? Try hiring an independent fund raising management company to assist you. Would this not benefit the people you serve? Raise the bar! You can do this!

Together, we CAN make a difference!

Karen Cooper - OR/CA Mortgage Consultant - www.Quality4Loans.com

Part 1 http://activerain.com/blogsview/453104/Now-Is-The-Time

Part 2 http://activerain.com/blogsview/453131/Now-Is-The-Time