Recap: December 3 Housing Working Group Meeting
Housing Working Group
Topic: Increasing Affordable Homeownership Opportunities
December 3, 2024
Heart of West Lakes Wellness Center
Timothy Ayers (West Lakes Partnership) opened the meeting and participants introduced themselves. Vivian Bryant (Orlando Housing Authority) shared a brief presentation on the homeownership units they have been able to build at OHA (OHA presentation found here). They have used a variety of funding sources and built different types of homeownership units such as townhomes and single family homes. Michael Kimmey shared a presentation (found here) about the main goals for the Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant as well as the data that has been collected that is relative to the discussion.
The City of Orlando Juliet Heller and Stephanie Neves shared about the City’s First-time homeowner program. Must live within the City of Orlando to qualify. Must income qualify, work with a mortgage lender to know how much they will qualify for. The program is available for incomes up to 140% Of the Area Median Income. Moderate income (81-140% AMI) receives $20,000. Low income (50-81% AMI) is $35,000 and very low is $45,000 (below 50% AMI) which can be spent on downpayment and closing costs.
A first-time homebuyer is considered someone who has not owned a home in the last 3 years.
There is currently no funding available for first time homebuyer program but they are hopeful to have more funding soon; they do not offer wait list while working to secure additional funding
Suggest that strategy might enable CN resident to access both city and county program (and Florida Housing Finance Corp) to maximize amount available – was done by Parramore Heritage Homebuyer Club but county sales price max is lower than city.
There is a limit to the homes that you can buy with this program, it must be a single family home and there is a maximum cost of a home that is released each year by HUD (currently around $450,000)
Hometown Heroes has funding as well and provide assistance from $10,000 to $35,000 and can be used in conjunction with the First Time homebuyer program. Must work with their lenders. Program does not currently have funding. Not a forgivable loan, you must pay it back.
Hands of Central Florida shared about their programs that they provide.
Eight-hour course for downpayment assistance programs with the City and the County.
One on one counseling is the most important part of what they do.
Sustainability is key. Individuals may qualify to purchase but the most important thing is that they can manage costs and other requirements after the purchase. They ensure their clients can afford the property taxes, home insurance, HOA fees and the ongoing repairs.
Other comments:
From a real estate agent perspective, working with first time home buyers is challenging because they can’t really afford it. Many Pendana clients cannot afford a house in the neighborhood because prices have gone up so much and rent at Pendana is affordable.
The Napa program allows participants to stack the downpayment assistance. Multi-families can be useful for first time homebuyers to afford purchase; consider single family with mother-in-law suite
OHA builds in at least annual check-ins to support homebuyers long-term
HELP CDC - Nicole Oriel shared about HELP CDC
Reiterated that one on one counseling is the most important service and many times when people call for the 8 hour course, she will suggest they start one on one counseling until they have a 640 credit score, a stable job for over a year and some savings. These things are what is needed to be successful in homeownership.
Linking Legacies Program - offers estate planning to make sure that our senior population is prepared to correctly transfer their properties to their heirs.
Other comments:
A participant expressed concern about the displacement of the residents at Lake Mann Homes – discussion about protections and right-of-return for current public housing residents. OHA responded that they help residents to find new homes (either public housing units or section 8 vouchers) plus they have first right to return when the properties are rebuilt.
There is a need to find effective modes of communication to get this information out to the people who need it.