Markeshia Ricks Photos
New homeowner George Chin with Greater New Haven NAACP President Dori Dumas at Wednesday’s launch.
When city firefighter George Chin saw the brick house in Wooster Square, it was love at first sight. Thanks to a new program that gave him $10,000 toward a downpayment and closing costs, he’ll soon be moving in.
“It almost brings a tear to my eye,” Chin, 29, said of buying his first house. “I work for my city. I grew up here and went to school here. Now I own a home here.’
Chin is among the first of what the Greater New Haven Branch of the NAACP hopes will be a wave of new homeowners in the region thanks to the relaunch of a program to help people clear financial hurdles.
Branch President Dori Dumas announced the program, called “Homeownership Matters,” at the NAACP headquarters on Whalley Avenue Wednesday, part of a partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Neighborhood Housing Services.
“Every American deserves a piece of the pie,” Dumas said. “This program will help to improve opportunities for urban homebuyers with a $10,000 five year, interest-free forgivable loan to assist in the purchase of homes.”
People qualifying for the loans have the loans completely forgiven if they remain in their homes for the full five years. To qualify, applicants can earn up to 100 percent of the area median income (or somewhat higher if they purchase homes in low-income census tracts).
The program is a spinoff of a similar program seven years ago that was the result of a partnership of the NAACP and the former First Niagara Bank. Then NAACP Jim Rawlings worked to secure $7.5 million in funding to address economic inequity through the Community Reinvestment Act. Dumas said that the original program assisted more than 70 new homeowners in the Greater New Haven community and several small businesses that would not have qualified for traditional mortgages and loans.
Before First Niagara was acquired by Key Bank in 2016, $1 million left from that original funding was transferred to the Community Foundation for the Homeownership Matters Program, according to foundation President & CEO William Ginsberg.
Now the foundation is committing that $1 million to the relaunch of the program. So far three people, including Chin, have qualified, with another 37 potential homebuyers in the pipeline.
“We are eager to put that money to work for the good people of this community,” Ginsberg said. “We have known homeownership is good for neighborhood revitalization, neighborhood stability, and family stability. It is as true today as ever, homeownership remains too low in New Haven, much lower than in the surrounding communities, in the state as a whole, and in the rest of the country.
Will Ginsberg.
The housing market has rebounded in recent years — meaning construction of market-rate housing that people with low to moderate incomes cannot afford. That makes the Homeownership Matters program even more important, Ginsberg said.
Dumas noted that of the more than 50,000 households in the city, only 14,092, or 28 percent, own their homes. When those numbers are broken down by race, 37 percent of white households own their homes, compared to 27 percent of black households and 18 percent of Latino households.
And whether they rent or they own, many who live in New Haven are cost burdened, or severely cost burdened, meaning they’re either paying more than 30 percent or almost 50 percent of their income toward their housing cost.
“Just over half of the city’s households are cost burdened at 52 percent and 29 percent are severely cost burdened,” Dumas said.
Mayor Harp.
Mayor Toni Harp said one of the lessons learned from the Depression is that homeownership is tied to not only individual wealth building but to generational wealth building. Having the NAACP take on access to homeownership as a justice issue is important, she said. She said this renewed effort will complement many of the programs that the city offers such as the Re:New Haven program, which also offers incentives to buy a house in the city.
“What I see as mayor is more developers creating market-level housing that people who already live here can’t afford,” she said. “That’s why homeownership matters.”
Harp noted that New Haven students who grow up in a home that their parents own have a better chance at going to a state school tuition-free through the New Haven Promise scholarship program because they live in the city.
Chin: It’s the dream.
Bridgette Russell, managing director for Neighborhood Housing Services and the housing chair for the NAACP, said to be eligible for forgiveness and the zero percent loan, applicants must commit to being an owner occupant for five years. They also must participate in an education and counseling process and meet income guidelines. People interested in the program can find out more during an information session at ConnCAT in Science Park on Feb. 24. (Click here to register for the session.) Their lender also has to be on board.
Chin, who found out about the program after seeking help from the Neighborhood Housing Services, said that buying his first home was a stressful process. He’s certain that he would not have been able to do it without the financial help.
“Getting something like that granted to me was definitely a blessing,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t have a house right if not for that.”
"Every American deserves a piece of the pie," Dumas said. I guess that's true if you believe in entitlement. I believe Every American deserves an Opportunity to Earn a piece of the pie.