First-time, low-income home buyers to benefit from grant

September 23, 2006; As originally appeared in The Stamford Advocate

STAMFORD -- A federal grant for the Stamford Housing Authority to replace 144 low-income apartments on the West Side includes money to help 76 public housing tenants buy their own homes.

The $19 million grant, part of the federal Hope VI program, is paying for the demolition of the Fairfield Court apartment complex at Fairfield and Stillwater avenues and for replacement of the 144 units there with 55 on the same site and 89 in other locations.

The grant includes $3.4 million to be distributed as $45,000 second mortgages to help bridge the gap between what current tenants can afford and the high cost of small starter homes and condominiums in Fairfield County. The second mortgages -- which will be combined with privately financed mortgages guaranteed by the state, funds from nonprofits and buyers' savings -- do not have to be repaid until buyers resell their homes.

Helping public housing tenants and Section 8 voucher recipients buy homes has two advantages, housing authority Executive Director Richard Fox said.

It meets the goal of moving more people into their own homes and it frees public housing units for other renters.

"Every time we do that, it's like building another low-income unit," he said. The waiting list for public housing in Stamford has more than 700 names and is closed to new applicants because they would not likely get an apartment within three years.

The program will include education on the homebuying process, credit counseling and post-purchase training for first-time home buyers.

The home buyer education will be offered to 200 renters, many of whom do not currently qualify for homeownership because of poor credit or lack of sufficient savings. Fox hopes those renters will be ready to buy when another round of mortgage assistance becomes available, either through the authority or other sources.

Two local housing groups will administer the homeownership program.

The Housing Development Fund, a local nonprofit housing agency, will work with 150 families, 57 of whom will eventually buy homes through its version of the program, called Homeward Bound.

Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut, another nonprofit housing agency, will work with 50 more families and help 19 of them buy homes.

"So many people think it's not possible, but we know in fact that it is," said Joan Carty, executive director of HDF, which has worked with housing authorities in Greenwich and Danbury on similar programs that help renters buy homes.

The $3.4 million is the second such grant the Stamford Housing Authority has received in connection with a public housing revitalization.

When the authority tore down the Southfield Village complex off Selleck Street and built the mixed-income Southwood Square development in its place, it used a $1 million grant to help 36 renters buy their first homes, said Vincent Tufo, the authority's development director.

About half the clients were able to afford homes in Stamford, Tufo said. Most of the rest bought in Norwalk and Bridgeport, he said.

In a separate program HDF administered for the developer of Southwood Square, 15 buyers are about to close on below-market condominiums in the complex, Carty said.

Because of the increase in real estate prices and the additional grant money, the housing authority's loan amount has risen from $25,000 to $45,000.

Even with the extra money, market-rate homes in Stamford may still be out of reach to most low- and moderate-income buyers, Tufo acknowledged.

"It's very tough in Stamford now," he said.

That is why the authority is allowing people to use the funds anywhere in Fairfield County, and -- on a case-by-case basis -- beyond its borders.

"If somebody came to us and said, 'I've found a home but it's just over the line,' I'm sure we would work with them," Tufo said.

Those who do find a home in Stamford are eligible for a $20,000 city loan with similar repayment terms.

The Fairfield Court rehabilitation project includes construction of 55 homes on site by 2009, a 60-unit supportive-housing apartment building at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Tresser Boulevard, and 16 apartments under construction on Taylor Street. The authority also is working with Mutual Housing to build 13 apartments on Fairfield Avenue.

The Taylor Street project should be completed by late next year, and the Clinton Avenue building by early 2008, Tufo said.