Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
Lottery Lady

DC 37 helps member get condo

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Two DC 37 members are very lucky ladies. Thanks in part to the union housing program and the city employees’ preference in the Housing Preservation and Development Dept. lottery program, they recently moved to the Orion, a new nine-story luxury condominium tower in the South Bronx.

Local 1549 member Elba Olivio rented a flat in a new two-family house. “I had a great apartment, but I still dreamed of owning my own home one day,” said the Eligibility Specialist. She worked two jobs to save toward her goal and got a $22,500 grant from HomeFirst. Today she owns the two-bedroom condo she shares with her daughter, who is in college.

Dept. of Homeless Services employee Enyi Uloma spied the Orion soon after developers broke ground in 2006. She said, “I was shopping nearby and saw the construction site. I copied the builder’s address on a store receipt and wrote them a letter.”

Both DC 37 members received applications in the mail, submitted them to the developers and got important assistance. As city employees they qualified for the 5 percent set aside on HPD apartments, and they had housing help from the union’s Municipal Employees Housing Program.

Three key advantages put Uloma and Olivio in their dream condos: good credit, significant savings and District Council 37.

In 2005 Executive Director Lillian Roberts wrote the mayor about the housing crisis facing DC 37 members. Working together with the mayor, HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan, Neighborhood Housing Services and Amalgamated Bank, DC 37 created the MEHP, the first and most comprehensive labor-sponsored affordable housing initiative in the country. Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido runs the program.
“I read about the housing program in the PEP and hoped I’d get there one day, but I didn’t know how I could afford it,” said Olivio. “My supervisor encouraged me to call my union. Mr. Garrido and the staff were very helpful. One day he handed me a key chain and said, ‘The condo is yours.’”

Good credit and savings
“I desperately wanted the place. I applied when digging first started,” said Uloma, who was number 191 on the list for 60 apartments. A credit check, a willing co-signer and DC 37 opened the door. “Mrs. Proceda, the wife of the developer, spoke with me herself. Since others on the list did not have good credit, she told me to pick the apartment I wanted and I was able to write a check for the deposit on the spot,” said Uloma, whose persistence paid off.

Attorneys from DC 37’s Municipal Employees Legal Services helped with the closings, and mortgage financing came through MEHP. The union housing program offers a wide range of services: mortgages, credit counseling and repair, foreclosure prevention, construction loans, refinancing, reverse mortgages, the 5 percent set-aside, Section 8 vouchers, HomeFirst grants of up to $24,000, and services for city workers who are homeless. Union members can qualify for grants and mortgage assistance to purchase condos, co-ops, one-to-four-family houses in the five boroughs and second homes outside the city.

Through MEHP, Uloma received a $20,000 HomeFirst grant. “I thought it was all a big dream,” she said. “I believe I was destined to have one of these apartments. It gives me goose bumps.”

Although the Orion is on a commercial street, the building has a quiet courtyard where wisteria vines, pink hydrangea, evergreens and hostas grow. Owners have access to a furnished community room where they can entertain guests, and the building has a laundry center on the ground floor.

“Before, I only saw rent increases every year,” said Olivio, “but now that I own my home, I am not wasting money on rent. I have an investment, and even a backyard. I’m very lucky and very happy.”