Public Employee Press

Municipal Employees Housing Program
Housing fair hits home run!

“Despite the housing bust, through MEHP our members are achieving their dreams as successful homeowners.”
— Lillian Roberts

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

As sellers slashed home prices and mortgage investors went broke, more than 700 members and retirees attended DC 37’s Municipal Employees Housing Fair June 25 and participated in seminars on credit counseling, housing grants, foreclosure prevention, reverse mortgages, and much more.

“We have to thank DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts for having the insight and wisdom to address the need for more affordable housing in this city long before the rest caught on,” said DC 37 Housing Committee Chair Peter Stein.

In 2005 Roberts wrote a letter to the mayor about the housing crisis DC 37 members face because of the residency requirement. She and the mayor, HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan, Neighborhood Housing Services and the Amalgamated Bank created the Municipal Employees Housing Program (MEHP), the first and most comprehensive labor-sponsored affordable housing initiative in the country. Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido runs the program and organized the fair.

At booths with giveaways, candy and balloons, representatives from a dozen banks such as Amalgamated, Chase and HSBC, the event’s co-sponsors, explained the mortgage process. Participants got advice from realtors, counselors from the union’s Municipal Employees Legal Services and representatives of the city’s Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development and the Human Rights Commission, whose Local 154 members protect city homebuyers from predatory lenders. Savvy house hunters perused foreclosed properties at a booth sponsored by the federal Housing and Urban Development Dept. Union staff drew members’ names for door prizes, gift baskets and $100 Home Depot gift cards from co-sponsors and realtors.

MELS attorneys, Local 154 members and retiree Mary Champion led some of the workshops and seminars that explained the pitfalls of subprime loans, the more stringent lending qualifications for first-time homebuyers, the responsibilities of homeownership, the way credit scores are calculated and how to repair damaged credit. “We came to see if we can afford to buy,” said Pharmacy Tech Rowshonara Ahmed, of Local 420, who was with her husband. To date, MEHP has helped more than 8,000DC 37 members, hundreds have obtained $300 million in home loans and $1 million in first-time homebuyers’ grants, and more than 120 members have refinanced their home loans through the program to avoid foreclosure.

MEHP offers a wide range of services: mortgages, credit counseling and repair, foreclosure prevention, construction loans, refinancing, reverse mortgages, a 5 percent set-aside for apartment rentals offered through HPD lotteries, Section 8 vouchers, FirstHome grants of up to $24,000, and services for city workers and their families who are homeless. Union members can qualify for grants and mortgage assistance through MEHP to purchase condominiums, co-operative apartments and one- to four-family houses in the five boroughs and second homes outside the city.

“This housing program continues to help members meet the challenge of finding decent and affordable homes in one of the most expensive cities in the world,” said Ms. Roberts. “The program has exceeded our expectations and we’ve added more services to meet members’ needs. Despite the nationwide housing bust, our members are achieving their dreams and meeting with success as homeowners.”