Illinois Assistive Technology Program
Springfield, Ill.
Represented by Robin Benson, Homeownership Coalition project manager
Description of Contribution to Increase Minority Homeownership
In 2002, the Statewide Independent Living Council of Illinois SILC launched the IL Homeownership Coalition for People with Disabilities (Homeownership Coalition), answering a need expressed by local Realtors and lenders, to assist people with disabilities with purchasing homes. The solution to this need is expressed in the Homeownership Coalition's mission statement: To assist all people, regardless of their disability, in purchasing their own homes, allowing them to live in a community as independently as possible.
In 2007 the sponsorship of the Homeownership Coalition passed to the Illinois Assistive Technology Program, to better serve consumers located in six counties in central Illinois. The Homeownership Coalition is comprised of individuals from 23 community organizations. This partnership is committed to providing a comprehensive pre- and post- purchase support system to ensure that eligible people with disabilities and their families successfully purchase and maintain their homes. Up to $19,000 in grants for down payment and closing costs is leveraged with affordable loan assistance programs, such as USDA Rural Development’s Direct 502 Program, and the Housing Authority's Section 8 Homeownership Voucher Program, to provide mortgage payments that are often equal to or less than what these families are paying for rent. These grants are forgiven after five years as long as the owner is still living in the property. Since this program has been so successful, it was decided to expand the program statewide through the Centers for Independent Living (CILs).
Barriers such as low incomes, lack of traditional or good credit, limited savings, architectural and social barriers are some of the challenges faced by our families.Partnering with Fannie Mae gave us the opportunity to lest their new mortgage loan program, MyCommunity HomeChoice, designed to specifically address many of these barriers. Down payment/ closing cost assistance and emergency assistance funds come from a number of sources The local CILs, along with their program partners, assist with finding solutions for the social and architectural barriers.
Measurement
In 2001, a survey conducted by the Statewide Independent Living Council of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Human Services, showed that 63% of the respondents, nearly 90% with annual incomes less than $27,800, wished to own their own homes. Since 2002, 138 families, most with incomes less than 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI),
have purchased their first homes through the Springfield program in central Illinois.
Specifically, 30% are at or below 30% AML, 33 % are 31-50% AMI, 21% are 51-60% AML, 13% are 61-80% AMI, and 2% arc above 80%. (Percentages rounded down to nearest whole number).
A total of over 314 families in Illinois hate been assisted through six Homeownership Coalitions for People with Disabilities programs with less than 1 percent foreclosure rate:
The other three programs are too new to have had any closings yet. Thanks to a Technical Assistance grant awarded by the Illinois Housing Development Authority all of the programs will be receiving additional capacity building support in 2009.
Innovation
One of the most significant barriers to home ownership among people with disabilities is their very low household incomes. According to a 1998 Harris and Associates poll, people with disabilities are nearly three times more likely than their non-disabled counterparts to have household incomes of less than $15,000. As a result, many of these
individuals with disabilities are not able to accumulate enough money for a down payment and closing costs. Even if they are fortunate enough to purchase a home, they often cannot afford home modifications to make the home more accessible or the necessary maintenance or repair projects so common in the older, more affordable homes.
So now our biggest challenge was how to make homeownership affordable. After researching what resources were available in the community, we found that we could leverage a number of programs, which was very exciting. Many organizations, we found, do not promote their programs. Once we got these organizations to buy-in to our program, they were amazed at what could be accomplished! At our quarterly partnership meetings we share what is going on with our programs and explore solutions for our homebuyers’ as well as our homeowners’ challenges. Our homebuyer education classes are mandatory. We provide post-purchase counseling and emergency resources on an ongoing basis. That is why we have had less than I % foreclosure rate to date!
The Bailey family was able to purchase a brand new energy-efficient home with garage for $85,500 in what was formerly a blighted neighborhood. The non-profit developer, TSP-HOPE, is one of our coalition partners. TSP-HOPF received a $13,300 Community Development Block Grant (CDBO) from the City for down payment assistance. Their
$12,000 Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago down payment grant was then leveraged with our IHDA Trust Fund grant of $5,000 for additional down payment and closing cost assistance. The family was than able to obtain a Section 8 Homeownership Voucher from the local housing authority which subsidized their mortgage payment to a remarkable $124 a month - much less than the $395 for rent they were paying!
We are also unique in that we work with all disabilities. Other homeownership programs in Illinois only assist (or assisted) people with developmental disabilities. To be sustainable and able to effectively reach as many people as possible, it is necessary that there be a lot of similar programs around the state, leveraging their community’s resources. These community relationships ensure more services and more support systems available for people with disabilities at little or no cost to the homeownership program.
For a few years, one program for the developmentally disabled that is no longer in existence had two staff people covering the entire state. Consequently, they were not effective in reaching a lot of people who wanted to take advantage of their program. The process of getting the homebuyers into their homes also took a long time. If they had followed our template for success they would still be in operation.
Homeownership has indeed helped people with disabilities acheive a greater level of independence and a sense of belonging to the community. As our new programs grow, imagine the many successes we will have in Illinois!
Minority Acceptance
Our minority group is people with disabilities. Over the years our program has been recognized for its successes. Disabled people from all over the State are referred to our program in Springfield. We then refer them to the appropriate homeownership coalition in their area. These are some of the awards from agencies or organizations that work with people with disabilities:
May 2006 – Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in Illinois' annual statewide awards dinner. Robin Benson received the Barbara Pritchard Advocacy Award for her work in helping people with disabilities realize the American dream of homeownership.
Habitat for Humanity – Sangamon County, for the last few years at their annual recognition dinner, has awarded our program for our partnering efforts. We leverage our down payment grams with their 0% Interest rate loans. We also provide assistive devices and technical assistance to make the homes more accessible.
2005 – Honor for the Enhancement of Homeownership Opportunities for People with Disabilities throughout the State of Illinois. Given by PACE, the CIL in Urbana, where we started a homeownership program.
2005 – Special Community Partner Recognition - from the Central Illinois Center for Independent Living for assisting them with the start-up of their homeownership program.
2005 – Certificate of Appreciation from the Developmental Disabilities Council for presenting information on homeownership at their Illinois Transition Conference.
2004 – Program chosen by the Illinois Department of Human Services' (IDHS) Office of Compliance. Accessibility and Workplace Safety (CAWS) as one of Illinois' "Promising Practices in Home and Community-Based Services". Robin Benson was a presenter at the Annual Systems Change Conference in Baltimore.