Housing Counseling
Margert Community Corporation is a New York State
Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR)
Neighborhood Preservation Company, and a
HUD approved housing counseling agency, providing comprehensive assistance
to persons who want to rent, buy or already own a home, and who seek to be
responsible renters, buyers and owners.
View Margert's
HUD
Comprehensive Housing Counseling Approval certification.
DHCR Neighborhood Preservation Companies Program (NPP)
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal
provides financial support for not-for-profit community-based housing
corporations to perform housing and community renewal activities statewide.
These corporations, known as Preservation Companies, provide assistance
including, but are not limited to, housing rehabilitation,
home buyer
counseling, tenant counseling, landlord/tenant mediation, community
rehabilitation and renewal, crime watch programs, employment programs, and
legal assistance. A majority of preservation companies are also involved in
the planning and development of capital projects including new construction
and /or rehabilitation of older housing stock. Companies perform this work
with the assistance of DHCR administrative funds and leveraged funds from
the private sector and other governmental sources.
Preservation Companies are located in most areas of the state and
primarily serve low- and moderate-income residents. Preservation Companies
are required to serve areas where there are significant unmet housing needs
for the low-income population.
HUD Housing Counseling
Program
This program supports the delivery of a wide variety of
housing counseling services to homebuyers,
homeowners, low- to moderate-income
renters, and the
homeless. The primary objectives of the program are to expand homeownership
opportunities, improve access to affordable housing and preserve homeownership.
Counselors provide guidance and information to help
families and individuals improve their housing conditions and meet the
responsibilities of tenancy and homeownership. Counselors also help borrowers
avoid inflated appraisals, unreasonably high interest rates, unaffordable
repayment terms, and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity,
increased debt, default, and eventually foreclosure.
Additionally, counselors may provide counseling services to
homeowners to prevent or resolve mortgage delinquency, default, and foreclosure,
with the primary objective to preserve homeownership. Counselors provide
guidance and advice to help families and individuals meet the responsibilities
of homeownership and modify or refinance their loans to avoid unreasonably high
interest rates, unaffordable repayment terms, and other conditions that can
result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default, and eventually foreclosure.
Margert's HUD Housing Counseling Program enables anyone who wants to (or already does) rent or own
housing - whether through a HUD program, a Veterans Affairs program, other
Federal programs, a State or local program, or the regular private market - to
get the counseling they need to make their rent or mortgage payments and to be a
responsible tenant or owner in other ways.
Margert also provides Reverse
Mortgage Counseling to elderly homeowners who seek to convert equity in
their homes into income that can be used to pay for home improvements, medical
costs, living expenses, or other expenses.
Margert is
a HUD-approved housing counseling agency.
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NYC
HPD Preserve Assets and Community Equity (PACE)
PACE is a comprehensive new program that includes
outreach, education, financial assistance and legal strategies to current
homeowners and new home buyers who are a part of groups and neighborhoods
historically targeted by predatory lenders.
Irresponsible lending practices and risky mortgages
can result in homeowners losing their homes, which is the most traditional
vehicle for asset building and wealth creation.
This new financial education, legal and credit
assistance measure will focus first on reaching residents in the communities of
Southeast Queens, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, which are neighborhoods that
have experienced high rates of predatory lending.
The initial participating community-based
organizations are Margert
Community Corporation (serving homeowners in Southeast Queens), Ridgewood
Bushwick Senior Citizens Council (Bushwick), and Pratt Area Community Council
(Bedford-Stuyvesant).
In conjunction with
South Brooklyn Legal Services,
the Neighborhood
Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP)
and the
Parodneck Foundation, we provide legal assistance, education, loan
remediation and counseling to homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
We will also help to arrange financing for
rehabilitation loans, educate clients about credit repair, and improve access to
traditional credit.
PACE partner Freddie Mac's
Don't Borrow Trouble®
is the first comprehensive consumer awareness campaign of its kind, combining
public education and counseling services to help homeowners avoid lending
practices that strip away their home's equity.
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Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
HEAP helps low-income
homeowners and renters pay bills for heating fuel, equipment and repairs. HEAP
grants are $40 to $440 a year.
Project Warmth, Long Island's Emergency
Heating Fund
Project Warmth was able to assist more than 1,600 families to stay warm last
winter, helping them to focus on other pressing needs of their loved ones.
Applicant must have residency in Nassau County, Suffolk County or the Rockaway
area in Queens (LIPA service area).
On Track Program
KeySpan Energy Delivery created
On Track to provide financial assistance and education for low-income
customers. On Track works with 200 low-income KeySpan Energy Delivery heating
customers to help them resolve financial difficulties.
NYS
DHCR Region of
Service: Far Rockaway, Queens HUD
Housing Counseling Program Regions of Service: All NYC & Long Island
NYC
HPD PACE Region of Service: Southeast Queens and the Rockaways
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