Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
Seals the Deal

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Kevin Tang wanted to move up, literally, and eyed a one-bedroom flat on a floor above his studio apartment in his Flushing, Queens, co-op building.

Farrah Lafontant wanted to move out of her parents’ home in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn to a home of her own. She put her name on a list for a new two-family duplex in East New York offered through the city’s Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development.

Both DC 37 members began their house hunt with little knowledge of the year-old Municipal Employees Housing Program offered through their union. Tang learned of MEHP through his lawyer at DC 37’s Municipal Employees Legal Service, as he was about to close on his terraced flat. Lafontant read about the program in PEP after she signed the contract on her house. The last minute tips on MEHP saved these members a bundle.

“I was in contract to buy this house since 2004,” said Lafontant, a 28-year-old Parent Coordinator and member of Dept. of Education Employees Local 372. “I had used my 401(k) money as a down payment and was frazzled because I didn’t know how I was going to come up with the closing costs.”

Lafontant contacted MEHP coordinator Tracey Lewis right away, and learned she was eligible for a HomeFirst grant. “I got an $18,314 grant that I never have to pay back!” beamed Lafontant. “It was like found money, like Christmas! I was overjoyed.”

Tang and Lafontant join a growing number of members who have benefited from DC37’s MEHP. Residency requirements, a condition of employment for most city workers, limit DC37 members’ options as they face New York City’s housing squeeze and high prices. DC 37Executive Director Lillian Roberts took action on this problem, meeting with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan to obtain a better chance at affordable housing for members.

MEHP is a unique partnership between the union, the city Housing Preservation and ­Development Dept., and Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit homeownership organization. The union-based housing program provides DC37 members with a 5 percent set-aside preference in lotteries for rental apartments, and grants and mortgage ­assistance to purchase condominium and co-operative apartments, or one-to-four family houses in New York’s five boroughs.

MEHP offers one-stop service with counseling, credit repair, first time homebuyers’ grants through FirstHome, and mortgages through 10 banks. The program also helps with refinancing, foreclosure prevention, and federal Section 8 grants and permanent housing in New York City Housing Authority projects for homeless union families.

Through MEHP, Tang received three offers for financing from major banks. He qualified for a fixed-rate, low-interest loan at 5.25 percent, at least 1 percent lower than current lending rates, with no closing costs.

Tang, a member of Electronic Data Processing PersonnelLocal 2627, said, “The union’s program offered a much better deal than my neighborhood bank. I figure that I saved around $4,000 and I didn’t have to do a lot of legwork; it was all at the union hall. I saved on legal expenses, too.”

MEHP classes for small residential property owners helped Lafontant understand her new responsibilities. And a mortgage through Wells Fargo sealed her deal with an interest rate thatimpressed even her attorney. “The MEHP program was a no-brainer. It took the weight off my shoulders,” she said.

“Moving from my parents’ home in Canarsie to my first apartment — which is my own home — is overwhelming and joyous,” Lafontant said. “I feel like a whole new chapter is being written in my life. I am so excited about what’s in store.”