Margert News Archive 3
Margert Teams with NYCHA for Local "American Dream"
Home Ownership Initiative
The Full Story
Far Rockaway, NY, July 28,
2003....Home Ownership is the most common way for American families to build and
pass on wealth from one generation to the next. The building of home equity, and
the general trend of real estate to appreciate in value over time, are the
fundamental building blocks of the "American Dream." Successful homeownership
contributes to healthy families, neighborhoods and communities. The New York
City Housing Authority (NYCHA), in partnership with Margert Community
Corporation, has designed a program to help Rockaway NYCHA residents buy and
keep homes of their own, so they can build intergenerational wealth and build
brighter futures for themselves and their children.
Under the NYCHA Ocean Bay Apartments HOPE VI
program, Margert Community Corporation has contracted to offer enhanced housing
counseling services to prepare NYCHA residents to make the transition to
homeownership, and to take advantage of new homeownership opportunities.
Margert's Homeownership Preparation Program (HPP)
is designed to empower NYCHA residents to break through the existing barriers
that impede lower income and minority participation in the American Dream. NYCHA
will provide a purchase assistance subsidy, up to $ 25,000 for eligible resident
households, to make first time home purchase more affordable. The purchase
assistance subsidy will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, to a
limited number of NYCHA households that successfully meet program requirements.
Minimum household income requirements will apply, and first priority will be
given to NYCHA Ocean Bay residents. Second priority will be given to other
Rockaway NYCHA Residents, and a third priority will be extended to NYCHA
residents living outside of the Rockaways.
Margert is a HUD-approved housing counseling
agency that provides assistance to persons who want to buy or already own a home
or rent an apartment, and who seek to be responsible buyers, owners or tenants.
The agency also has the capacity to make available matching grant funds to
qualifying individuals and families enrolled in its programs.
Successful completion of the program will require
21 hours of classroom training. Qualified instructors, certified mortgage and
tenant counselors, and experienced budget & credit repair counselors will be
available to provide both group and individual assistance.
To find out more about Margert's Homeownership Preparation Program (HPP), or
to enroll your family, please see our advertisement on the opposite page, log on
to our website (at www.margert.org), or call us at 718-471-3724. The initial
enrollment period will close at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, September 30, 2003.
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MARGERT KICKS OFF
“FIRST HOME CLUB”
The Full Story
Far Rockaway, NY, June 19, 2003....Margert
Community Corporation is presently accepting registrations for its newly
established homebuyers club. Called the “First Home Club,” this unique new
offering will hold the first of five classes on July 16th, 2003.
The club is designed to help individuals prepare
for homeownership. The program covers budgeting, savings & credit, choosing a
home, available mortgage products, applying for a mortgage, the mortgage closing
process, life as a homeowner and how to avoid predatory lending (as well as how
to fight back if you’ve been victimized!).
The course consists of five (5) two-hour
classroom sessions, held over a 5-week period, which will teach you what it
takes to become a successful homeowner. All five classes must be attended for a
certificate of completion and to qualify for the matching funds grant.
Upon completion of the required courses,
participants will be required to engaged in one-on-one counseling to develop an
individualized action plan. Once all the terms of the First Home Club
requirements are met (including the approved counseling homeownership sessions
and income guidelines), and the participating lender has approved your
application, the final approval will be made by the Federal Home Loan Bank of NY
to grant the award at the mortgage closing. Eligible applicants will qualify to
have every $1 they save matched with $3, up to a maximum grant of $5000.
Classes will be held on Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, at the
Tessier Learning Center located at 336 Beach 38th Street, Far Rockaway, NY
11691, on the following dates: July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6, and August
13. For further information, or to register, please call Julissa Arias at (718)
471-3724.
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Far Rockaway
Homeownership Fair
The Full Story
On Saturday, April 26th, New Yorkers from
Southeastern Queens and the nearby area can find out how they may qualify to
purchase one of the hundreds of new, 2-3 family homes under construction in the
Rockaways.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, in
association with Margert Community Corporation, local nonprofits, and area
lenders, will host a With Ownership, Wealth (W-O-W) Initiative event, the 2003
Far Rockaway Homeownership Fair, at the Rev. Mason Center at JHS 198, 365 Beach
56th Street, Far Rockaway, NY. The fair will kick off at 11 AM and run until 4
PM..
Hosted by Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks
(D-6/NY) and New York City Councilmember James Sanders, Jr., the New York W-O-W
Committee and sponsors include: CitiMortgage, Countrywide Home Loans, The Faith
Center for Community Development, Fannie Mae, Fleet, Freddie Mac, HSBC Bank
(USA), JPMorgan Chase Bank, Margert Community Corporation, Neighborhood Housing
Services of New York City, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation
and Development, the New York City Housing Authority, New York Housing
Partnership, Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation, U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo
Home Mortgage.
“With Ownership, Wealth” (or W-O-W) was designed
by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) to help more African
Americans become homeowners. WOW was launched specifically to promote African
American Homeownership. African American homeownership continues to lag behind
the rates of majority populations. Despite the fact that minority homeownership
grew four times faster than for whites in the 1990s, the African American
homeownership rate is still less than 50 percent, lagging far behind the 73
percent rate for white families and 70 percent for the nation as a whole.
An additional one million African Americans are
expected to become homeowners by 2005, thousands in the New York metropolitan
area.
Build a financial future for your family by
owning your own home. Find out how a wide array of flexible mortgage products
can help you address issues that many first time homebuyers and others face such
as lack of funds to cover down payment and closing costs and no reserves,
challenges in accumulating wealth, non-traditional credit histories, or impaired
credit.
Participating lenders will offer a wide array of
flexible mortgage products that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to
purchase and the participating mortgage companies will insure. For more
information about the April 26th W-O-W Event, please call Mariadele Priest at
Fannie Mae, 1-917-322-8964, or Stephanie Lawes at Margert, 718-471-3724.
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Learn How to Avoid
Predatory Lending
The Full Story
Far Rockaway, NY, March 18,
2003....How many of our friends and neighbors have been victimized by the
fraudulent business practices of predatory lenders? Do you know a family member
that has joyfully closed on a new home, only to discover later that appraisers,
realtors and lenders, acting in collusion, have victimized them? They awake to
the reality that their new dream house just is not worth the paper they are
carrying on it! Or, how about a senior citizen homeowner that has ended up
paying two or three times the repair value for a supposedly straightforward home
improvement loan?
Wouldn't you like to learn
how to avoid these lending traps, or what to do about it is you are victimized?
As the nonprofit housing agency of St. Mary's and St. Gertrude's, Margert
Community Corporation is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming
St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish Ministry Fair. St. Mary's is hosting a weekend
ministry fair to inform parishioners and the community about its programs and
services. Come join us for an informative workshop that addresses predatory
lending issues in a group-training environment.
Faithful to our mission and
the needs of the Rockaway community, Margert has scheduled a Fair Housing
Training Workshop, to be held at St. Mary's School Auditorium on Saturday, March
29, 2003, beginning at 6:15 PM sharp. The agenda for the training will provide
answers to the following questions: What is predatory lending? Why does it
exist, and what are the market factors that permit it to proliferate? How big is
the problem? Who is most often targeted for predatory loans? What are the most
common fraudulent practices? What are the warning signs of a predatory loan?
Where can homeowners go for help? And, perhaps most importantly…How are
communities responding to the problem?
As per Margert's Affordable
Housing Agenda for 2003, our goals are to preserve the existing stock of safe,
decent and affordable housing; promote successful and responsible tenancy;
provide equal access to homeownership opportunities; improve residential health,
safety and energy affordability; narrow the "digital divide;" and promote
professionalism in the delivery of housing services to the communities we serve.
We will continue our efforts
to break down existing barriers to equal opportunity, combat predatory sales and
lending practices, and reduce the number of mortgage foreclosures in our
communities.
If you think you may be a victim of predatory
lending or sales, please make every attempt to attend this workshop or please
call our office immediately (or visit our website at www.margert.org) to
schedule an appointment with a certified housing counselor. As a charter member
of the NYC Mortgage Foreclosure Taskforce, Margert may be able to provide
valuable information, intervention and mitigation services to help prevent the
loss of your home.
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