Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
Union family gets
A slice of the Big Apple

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

DC 37 member Myrlene Clerge and her husband used $39,000 of their life savings for a down payment on a house in Brooklyn. Yet, eight months into the deal, they were no closer to owning the mixed-use, four-family walk-up.

“It was a nightmare,” said Clerge, a Local 371 member. “The mortgage company was pressuring us to take a loan at 10.24 percent interest. They said no one wanted to finance a mixed-use property. Then they wanted us to come up with an additional $134,000 to close.”

The clock was ticking and $134,000 for closing costs was an impossible sum to raise, said Clerge, who is an Associate Fraud Investigator with the Dept. of Homeless Services. The seller had the Clerges’ money in an escrow account and threatened to keep it if the Clerges reneged on the purchase. The couple stood to lose everything.

That’s when a co-worker suggested Clerge call DC 37’s Municipal Employees Housing Program. MEHP is an unprecedented program that gives DC 37 members a better chance at affordable housing and homeownership in New York City and provides first-time homebuyers with one-stop services that include mortgages, grants, counseling and credit repair. MEHP reached its one-year anniversary in September and has aided 1,500 DC 37 members.

“The program was my savior,” Clerge said. Five days before her closing date, she called MEHP Counselor Noemi Vega for help.

“I told the counselor ‘I have no money, no help and no time,’ ” Clerge admitted.

“MEHP stepped in with emergency service,” said DC 37 Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido.

Within an hour Vega had Wells Fargo Bank representative Aubrey Nurse call the member. “We had an appointment the next morning,” recalled Clerge. Two weeks later the Clerges closed on their home with a “no money down” 6.25 percent fixed-rate mortgage that included $40,000 for closing costs and renovations.

With help from MEHP the family also qualified for a $25,000 grant through FirstHome. The Clerges moved into their new four-family home in August.

“The DC 37 housing program was a safety net and lifesaver for this family,” said Garrido. “The program enabled them to realize their dream despite huge obstacles.”

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts initiated MEHP in January 2005 when she wrote a letter to Mayor Mike Bloomberg asking that more affordable housing be made available to DC 37 members.

Roberts obtained a 5 percent affordable housing preference for all city workers for HPD-sponsored rental apartments available through lottery. And DC 37 began MEHP, a unique partnership between labor, the city Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development and the nonprofit group Neighborhood Housing Services.

“I am telling everyone about this program,” Clerge said. “I am excited that I finally own a home and have a slice of the Big Apple. It is an investment in my family’s future,” said the mother of two.

“Without my union it definitely would have been a more difficult situation. I would have been more in debt and borrowing from other people. MEHP helped me avoid a lot of headaches and debt.”