Housing Bubble
Program to Turn Nearly 1,500 Low-Income Families Into Homeowners
The East Los Angeles Community Corporation (ELACC), the City of Los Angeles and Bank of America, together with the Enterprise Home Owners Partnership (EHOP), have launched a major new initiative that will create homeownership opportunities for nearly 1,500 low-income families in Los Angeles.
The partnership program is one of the largest private initiatives of its kind promoting homeownership for low-income families. It is also one of the most comprehensive, utilizing partners at every step of the way, from buying foreclosed properties to selling and financing rehabilitated homes.
Under the program, EHOP buys foreclosed and distressed homes at discount from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, thereby creating a centralized point for ELACC and other agencies to rehabilitate homes in neighborhoods they serve and to bring substandard homes up to code. The homes are then sold to low-income individuals and families earning 55 percent to 115 percent of the area's median income. Bank of America provides first trust deed financing.
The program was announced during a news conference at the home of the Vega-Mendoza family, one of the families to buy a home after first completing the ELACC Home Buyer Education Program.
"East LA Community Corporation has been working with Ms. Vega and Mr. Mendoza for over two years," said Maria Cabildo, executive director, ELACC. "They have attended ELACC's eight-hour Home Buyer Education workshop and received over fifteen hours of one on one counseling and assistance. Today we celebrate their successful completion of our Home Buyer Education Program. With the help of Bank of America, the City of Los Angeles, the Enterprise Foundation and ELACC's Home Buyer Education Partners, a hard working family will become a first-time homeowner."
Bank of America is a lead lender in a group of financial institutions that provided a total of $32 million in construction financing to support the EHOP program. Bank of America and Broadway Federal Savings cosponsored EHOP's application to the Federal Home Loan Bank's Affordable Housing Program.
"Homeownership is a cornerstone of healthy communities. That is why Bank of America supports a number of programs that promote homeownership opportunities for all California residents," said Bank of America Senior Vice President and Community Development Manager Al Arguello. "Combining our efforts with those of our community agencies means that we can bring more resources to address a problem of critical concern and do our part to revitalize economically distressed neighborhoods in Los Angeles."
The issue of affordable housing is of paramount
importance in Los Angeles where the median price of a home in the county
reached a record $273,000 in October 2002 and the affordability index
declined to where only 30 percent of Los Angeles households can afford
the median-priced home. Those at the lowest levels of income are almost
completely priced out of the market.
ELACC is a nonprofit community development corporation builds new or rehabilitates single and multifamily housing for low-income families.
Enterprise Home Ownership Partners is a supporting organization of The Enterprise Foundation, a national nonprofit organization working with partners to rebuild communities by providing low-income people with affordable housing.
Source: PRNewswire
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