Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
A home of their own

DC 37 helps Shalanda Cunningham-James and her family move from public housing to home ownership

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Shalanda Cunningham-James is at home surrounded by boxes. She is on an adrenalin rush as moving day fast approaches. She and her husband closed a deal on a one-family brick house in the North Bronx Nov. 29 with help from the DC 37 Municipal Employees Housing Program.

As she sorts and packs things collected over a lifetime in the same apartment she grew up in, Shalanda reflects on how far she has come. Until now, she has always lived in the Bronx River Houses, a public housing project in the East Bronx.

“My husband and I weren’t really looking for a house, but one came up next door to my husband’s sister,” said Cunningham-James, a Caseworker in SSEU Local 371. “The owner agreed to sell us the house, but the neighborhood mortgage company was like vultures. They wanted $10,000 in extra fees. They said we had to use their lawyers.”

Cummingham-James read about DC 37’s new housing program in PEP. She called and arranged an appointment with MEHP manager and counselor Noemi Vega.

MEHP, DC 37’s innovative housing program, provides members with grants and assistance in obtaining affordable rental apartments, condos, coops and houses in New York City.

The program took its first step toward creation a year ago, when DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts wrote Mayor Bloomberg asking that more affordable housing be made available to DC 37 members. She came back with a 5 percent affordable housing preference for all city workers. What Roberts initiated has grown into a unique partnership of labor, the city Housing Preservation and Development Dept. and Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit homeownership organization.

“Now DC 37 members get a better chance at affordable housing and homeownership. MEHP provides one-stop service with counseling, credit repair, first-time homebuyers’ grants and mortgages through 10 lenders,” said Roberts.

“I never thought it would happen that quick. But with DC 37’s help, we got our mortgage through Wells Fargo and buying our first home was smooth sailing,” said Cunningham-James.

At the closing Nov. 29, her family became the first to gain title to their home through MEHP. Many other union families will be reaching that milestone in the coming weeks and months.

In a few weeks, Shalanda and her retired husband will welcome their first child. The three-bedroom home will be a good fit for her growing family, which includes three young cousins in her care, Tateana, Unique and James.

“The house needed no major work,” said Cunningham-James. “I am happy. I lived in the projects for 35 years. Owning a house was one of our goals as a married couple.”