Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
Affordable housing benefit opens its doors

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

District Council 37 has opened the doors of an innovative program that will give thousands of members the keys to affordable housing. The new program, which opened its own doors Aug. 1, offers members preferences for getting affordable rental apartments and homes in New York City, cash assistance with down payments and homebuyer education.

“There probably is no other program like this in the country for union members,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts as she and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan cut the ribbon on the new offices of the Municipal Employees Housing Program at the union’s Lower Manhattan headquarters.

Last January, Roberts wrote Mayor Mike Bloomberg, asking that more affordable housing be made available to DC 37 members, who must meet city residency requirements as a condition of employment. She came back with a 5 percent affordable housing preference for all city workers, a vital component of the MEHP.

Partnership
What Roberts initiated has culminated in a unique partnership of labor, HPD, Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit homeownership organization, with a grant from Amalgamated Bank, to give DC 37 members their best chance ever at affordable housing and homeownership in New York City.

“This program will provide one-stop service for our members,” said DC 37 Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido. MEHP offers homebuyer education, credit counseling, and the 5 percent housing preference for qualified city workers for sponsored rental apartments, condominiums, coops and private houses in designated neighborhoods throughout the city. Visit www.nyc.gov/hpd or www.nychdc.org for information on lotteries of the sponsored apartments and homes.

DC 37’s new MEHP office will have two full-time counselors to screen members, by appointment only, to see if they qualify for the housing programs. In addition to a lottery of available apartments, DC 37 members who are first-time homebuyers and meet the income and financial fitness requirements can receive cash assistance for down payments and/or closing costs for a new home. The grants are through NHS and HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance program. Other lending institutions and banks will offer mortgages though MEHP as well.

The program will conduct homeownership seminars on topics such as predatory lending and credit repair. The first seminar will be held Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 1 at 125 Barclay St.