Manna Staff address Director Michael Kelly

Manna gave testimony at a public hearing on July 25 for the DC Department of Housing and Community Development.  The hearing was to provide the public an opportunity to respond to the proposed FY2013 Consolidated Action Plan.  This plan will guide the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through most of 2013.  This is Part 2 in a series of articles on the public hearing and Manna’s involvement.  This article covers the testimony of Willamena Samuels, the director of Manna’s Homebuyers Club (HBC) for the past 15 years. This year, Manna's Homebuyers Club, which provides homebuyer education and financial literacy training, celebrated its 25th anniversary. Ms. Samuels thanked Director Michael Kelly (head of DHCD) for the partial funding for the Homebuyers Club.  She noted what the program had accomplished:  “The Homebuyers Club has helped to break the cycle of poverty and allowed families to live the American dream of homeownership through housing counseling and financial literacy education.  In addition, it has helped to build confidence in potential owners through peer support, which has enabled them to achieve common and individual goals.  Often this support has carried them through difficult times as they have become homeowners.  As a result, the stability and quality of life improves neighborhoods through the hard work of committed, knowledgeable and financially stable new homeowners.”

HBC is a monthly, ongoing, peer support program which consists of single adults, couples and senior citizens with incomes ranging from $10,000 to $70,000.  The curriculum covers topics such as: working with a budget, establishing good credit and maintaining it, building savings for a down payment, applying for down payment assistance, understanding the home purchase process, and being an asset to your community. 

Each HBC member participates in a one-on-one counseling session, as well as group counseling workshops which are held in the evening in an interactive seminar setting.  Clients who primarily attend group sessions typically receive between upwards of 10 hours of counseling services, depending on the type of service.  This includes group sessions and individual counseling. 

HBC currently has 253 people enrolled in the Homebuyers Club, 90 of whom joined since the beginning of the year.  Ms. Samuels noted, “The interest in affordable homeownership and people who are putting in the hard work to get their finances in order is huge and continuing to grow - and homebuyers education works.  No matter your income, with the right education, first-time homebuyer resources such as the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), and good fixed-rate mortgages, you can be a successful homeowner.”  Manna has sold over 1,000 homes in the last 30 years, with only a 2% foreclosure rate and zero foreclosures in the last 8 years.

To learn more about Manna’s programs for homebuyers, contact 202-832-1845 extension 222.

Improving a Lifeline for Successful First-Time Homebuyers

Manna and homeowners gave testimony at a public hearing on July 25 for the DC Department of Housing and Community Development.  The hearing was to provide the public an opportunity to respond to the proposed FY2013 Consolidated Action Plan.  This plan will guide the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through most of 2013.

Manna gave testimonies concerning the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP).  HPAP is DC’s homegrown down-payment assistance program.  It has helped 13,500 DC residents purchase their first home. Manna and HPAP recipient’s trumpeted the program’s success, addressed issues, and offered steps for improvement. DHCD is accepting comments until close of business on Monday, July 30, 2012.  You can email your comments to DHCD.EVENTS@DC.GOV with a subject line “Consolidated Plan comments.”

Manna Testimony

“Though the numbers are lower for fiscal year 2013 [due to federal cuts], we are delighted that 275 first-time homebuyers will be able to access down-payment assistance through the Home Purchase Assistance Program...[HPAP] continues to be one of the most important ingredients in helping low and moderate income DC residents become successful home owners and lifting up neighborhoods.

As you know, the Washington Post expose by Debbie Cenziper on the use of federal funding through DHCD unjustly disparaged many of the tools used to fund affordable housing in the District. I would like to speak specifically about the article on HPAP, which cited a 1.8% foreclosure rate amongst HPAP recipients as evidence of a ‘Million Dollar Wasteland’.  If it is true that fewer than 2 % of the HPAP loans have been lost to foreclosure, the District should be extremely proud of such a low foreclosure rate, especially through the worst years of the housing crisis. FHA and Fannie Mae foreclosures on loans originated in the last 10 years are many times greater than that, and reflect home buyers with higher incomes and greater household assets than the typical HPAP borrower.  We believe this very low loss rate reflects the benefits of the education required to receive HPAP, along with the full documentation underwriting by the Greater Washington Urban League, the low fully disclosed fixed rate payments and the property inspections.  HPAP home buyers often have payments lower than comparable rent, and have reasonable payments to income. 

The article and other reports have cited high delinquency rates, which are troubling statistics though consistent with the FHA and Fannie Mae data on increased delinquencies in this recession. We would like to share some suggestions on how to assist these home owners and help the District reduce the delinquencies which affect HPAP cash flow. HPAP only truly loses the District’s money when a foreclosure wipes out the HPAP principal, though the loss of principal cash flow diminishes the pool of funds for current period HPAP lending.

Before we offer suggestions, [let’s hear from] HPAP recipients.”

Testimony by Pablo, Ward 1 Homeowner and HPAP recipient

“The month before our fifth year anniversary of our HPAP loan, when we were scheduled to begin payments toward the loan, we received notification by e-mail from Amerinational Community Services. We made our first payment on time and immediately scheduled monthly automatic deductions.  At the same time, we decided to begin the process to refinance. It wasn't until our agent pulled our credit report that we discovered that Amerinational Community Services had notified the credit agencies six months prior to when we were supposed to begin payments and indicated to them that we were delinquent in our payments, thus negatively affecting our credit score...By then, we were already part of the statistics mentioned in the [Washington Post] article and now I question the accuracy of the HPAP repayment process.  It was the servicer who had it wrong, not me and with a 1.8% foreclosure rate in the HPAP history, I think not the overwhelming majority of those recipients as well.” 

Testimony by DeLisa, Ward 5 Homeowner and HPAP recipient

“I recently started paying back my HPAP loan; I wouldn’t have been able to purchase my home without it. Before I received repayment documentation, I happened to speak with Frank Demarais at Manna. He told me to be on the lookout for a letter from Amerinational Community Services, which is the HPAP loan repayment servicer. When I received the letter, the envelope didn’t mention anything about HPAP, and neither did the enclosed letter or payment coupons. If I hadn’t spoken with Frank, I would have thought it was junk mail. I possibly would have thrown the letter out. I’m lucky; not every HPAP recipient has a Frank.”

Manna Testimony

“In short, Manna believes there are basic things that DHCD can do with the servicer and with current HPAP counseling agencies to lower the default rate:

1.  Change the initial letter and payment coupons to clearly demonstrate that these documents are for HPAP repayment. HPAP recipients do not start repayment until year six of being in their home, so it is essential that the documentation is clear.

2.  Once an HPAP recipient is marked as delinquent or in default by Amerinational, DHCD should contact the homeowner to alert them to the missed payments and contact the HPAP counseling agency the recipient received counseling from and have the agency follow-up. This procedure offers a way to catch reporting mistakes by Amerinational or to provide needed counseling and budgeting assistance to HPAP recipients.

HPAP has been and continues to be an extremely successful program and a vital tool for low and moderate income DC residents to build wealth and independence through homeownership. DHCD has the opportunity to make the program even stronger and more efficient.”

DHCD is accepting comments until close of business on Monday, July 30, 2012.  You can email your comments to DHCD.EVENTS@DC.GOV with a subject line “Consolidated Plan comments.”

Taking Away the “Straw” That Builds Lives and Neighborhoods!

On Monday, July 8^th, the Washington Post published a story by Ylan Q. Mui entitled, “For Black Americans, Financial Damage from Subprime Implosion is Likely to Last.”   What the article did not say explicitly, but implied was that a crime was committed against Mrs. Ida Mae Whitley and her family and that of many thousands of other minority and lower/modest income borrowers like her by unscrupulous, predatory lenders, brokers and others on Wall Street who, evidently legally, swindled Ms. Whitley out of the equity in her home and good credit—her one ticket out of low income/wealth status. They also are responsible for targeting and wiping out 50% of black home equity and wealth in this country. All these lending and real estate predator/crooks need to do is file for bankruptcy, as Ms. Whitley’s  lender did, walk away and start a new company to find new ways to legally beat more vulnerable people and groups like Ms. Whitley and future generations out of their money. These crooks names were not even published in the article! We publish sexual predators’ names, why not financial, real estate and lending predator’s names living in our midst and preying on the vulnerable?

Rather, what we do is blame the victims, which is occurring now by policymakers, pundits, lenders and many in the public. How convenient. And what is the solution? To punish this income group even more, by making it even harder, almost impossible, for them to get loans, repair credit and by severely limiting the equity they can build up on their new homes with very discriminatory, unjust and predatory resale restrictions that trap them in low income/low wealth status such as is the case now in DC and promoted by “enlightened” Government and private policy groups.  It’s reminiscent of what Pharaoh did to the Hebrew slaves in Egypt when he forced them to, “Make bricks without straw, because they are lazy.” (Exodus 5: 7-8)

As of last week, another major mortgage lending bank officially ended their programs that support community and mortgage lending business for lower income people and the communities they live in, leaving no major mortgage lending bank operating any programs for third party originations in low and moderate income neighborhoods. The banks themselves have not opened mortgage operations or dedicated staff to these neighborhoods, and shutting down broker originations shuts down lending. Now what we have are lawsuits that force banks to pay paltry sums of money in comparison to their earnings and amounts in reserve, rather than forcing long term, institutional commitment to making good long term, low interest loans to very qualified, counseled and credit worthy buyers over years to come as the Community Reinvestment Act was designed to do, but is being ignored now.  The vacuum of lending in lower income areas asks these markets to recover and build back up without any straw for the building. 

We and other successful producers of affordable for sale homes know what works. In 30 years Manna has sold over 1,000 homes to lower income, very low down payment 1^st time home buyers in the District of Columbia with less than a 2% foreclosure rate among them. In the last 8 years, through the worst recession and foreclosure melt down since the depression, Manna has a 0% foreclosure rate among our buyers! What works is:  1) Good Homebuyer training and counseling, 2) Down payment Assistance such as DC’s highly successful H-PAP program. 3) Good 30 year fixed rate Mortgages and 4) Accessibility to good ongoing counseling when problems arise. It’s not rocket science. Now is the best time for lower and modest income people to purchase a home. Prices and interest rates are at their lowest in many years. In the District, one can own a home cheaper that renting in most neighborhoods. There are many qualified, excellently counseled and trained, credit worthy lower income people eager to move up the economic ladder, improve their neighborhoods, reverse falling home prices due to foreclosures. They are our ticket to a better more equitable society. Now is not the time to make it impossible for them to do so. 

-          Reverend Jim Dickerson

Founder & Chair, Manna Inc.

14th Annual Manna 5K Fun Run

This year’s Manna 5K Fun Run took place in Anacostia Park on Saturday, April 21st. Over 150 runners and walkers participated in this year’s event with Kwame Brown, former DC City Council Chairman, serving as the honorary chair of the event. 

A new element for this year’s event was the Manna 5K Team Challenge for the participants. Eight teams competed in the areas of Best Team Time and Most Team competitors. The Bank of America
Team won the Best Team Time with a cumulative time of 2:41.004 and the BJ’s Wholesale Club Team won the Most Competitors category with 11 team members.

Congratulations to the top three male runners: John Tracey, Michael McVictor, and Ibrahim Kamara; and the top three female runners: Martha Katz, Lisa Gold, and Priya Jayachandran. They received prizes from local organizations. The top runner in each age category also received prizes. Thank you to all the in kind donors including: BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, St. Mark’s yoga Center, Unity Woods Yoga Center, Safeway, Giant, and Panera Bread, Capital City Golf School.

The Manna 5K Fun Run serves to raise funds for healthy, vibrant and inclusive communities as well as celebrate springtime in our fair city.  All proceeds benefit Manna’s work of revitalizing neighborhoods and preserving diversity through affordable housing.

View photos of the 14^th Annual Manna 5K Fun Run on Manna’s Facebook!

National NeighborWorks Week 2012

On June 2nd, Manna partnered with NeighborWorks America for a neighborhood cleanup day in the Ivy City community, a long neglected DC neighborhood. This was part of the National NeighborWorks Week activities where NeighborWorks America partners with

Volunteers at National NeighborWorks Week

with their member organizations to promote efforts of beautifying the local communities. Representatives from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the National Credit Union Administration volunteered their time to pick up trash on the streets, clean up yards and parks, and dig a pipe trench for one of the future locations of the Bexhill Condominium, a new Manna 20-unit condominium project in Ivy City.

A special thanks to the Manna and NeighborWorks America staff who coordinated this event and the volunteers who worked hard to make this day successful. 

Click here to view more photos of National NeighborWorks Week 2012 on Manna's Facebook page!

East of the River Homebuyer Education Fair

The DC Department of Housing and Community Development and Manna Inc hosted the 1^st Annual East of the River Homebuyer Education Fair on Saturday, May 19^th. The event brought homebuyer education and resources to residents in Washington DC especially in Wards 7 and 8. Over 100 people attended the East of the River Homebuyer Education Fair at Thurgood Marshall Academy to interact with developers, lenders, and homebuyer counseling service organizations.
 

Exhibitors at the East of the River Homebuyer Education Fair

A special thanks to all of the exhibitors! In case you missed the Homebuyer Education Fair, you can get more information on the exhibitors by clicking on links below:

BB&T Mortgage

Citi Mortgage

DC Habitat for Humanity

Greater Washington Urban League

Housing Counseling Services

Manna

Manna Mortgage

Marshall Heights Community Development Organization

McWilliams Ballard

Operation Hope

PNC Mortgage

Real Estate Mortgage Network

University Legal Services

Wells Fargo

William C. Smith & Co

Manna's 2012 Volunteers- Thank You!

Volunteers from LaSalle Hotel Properties

Thank you to all of our volunteer groups in 2012!! The following groups/organizations have helped at Manna construction sites this year: American Institute of Architects, American University Service Group, BB&T, Dartmouth University Service Group, LaSalle Hotel Properties, and Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Click here to view photos of some of our 2012 volunteer groups on Manna’s Facebook page!

Hello's and Good-Bye's

Life is full of Hello’s and Good-bye’s.  In this case, I get to say “hello” to you, the friends and supporters of Manna, as the new Director of Corporate Development and Communications.  At the same time, we say Good-bye to Jennifer McAllister who has served in this position for the past seven years. As Manna's Director of Development & Communications, I look forward to being a part of the Manna family and getting to know each of you, our supporters and donors.  Without you, there wouldn’t be the bricks and mortar, the carpenters and craftsman, the advisers and counselors to guide people in the homebuying process to make the work of Manna happen.  You make it possible for Manna to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of low to moderate-income families to fulfill the American dream of being homeowners.   As our nation celebrates Independence Day, I join Reverend Jim, and all of us here at Manna, to thank you for making this measure of financial independence and security available to those who would otherwise not have it.  Please know that I am here at any time to answer your questions and to help to be a partner with Manna in this work.  My office number is 202-832-1845 x223 and my email is bwinston@mannadc.org.  I look forward to meeting you, so please do not hesitate at any time to reach out to me.

Happy Independence Day!

 

Bill Winston

Director of Corporate Development & Communications 


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