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A Home, At Last
Bank, housing agency team up for would-be homeowners
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Business New Haven
8/23/99
By: BNH
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In addition to being first-time homebuyers, Rovella and David Weeks of New Haven are the first recipients of the Citizens Bank-funded Individual Development Account (IDA), a pilot program designed to help low- and moderate-income families purchase homes, pay for education and training or start a business.
Citizens has partnered with New Haven's Neighborhood Housing Services to match the family's down payment in a $2-for-every-$1 basis, according to Citizens President and CEO James Claffee.
The matching-funds program is restricted to families whose incomes do not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the New Haven metropolitan area.
Rovella Weeks, 36, has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 11 years. Her husband, also 36, is a diagnostic-imaging assistant at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Their five children range from eight months to 17 years. The IDA program allowed them to move from a cramped, three-bedroom apartment to a spacious two-floor home of their own on Sherman Avenue.
They moved into their new quarters on August 1, and held a reception for State Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier and a host of reporters and program officials on August 11.
"I'm ecstatic and we're completely overwhelmed," Rovella said at the press event. "We're so thankful to NHS and Citizens Bank because without them this would not have been possible."
In March, the bank introduced the IDAs in the New Haven area. In April, Lieberman introduced legislation - the so-called Savings for Working Families Act - designed to help families build assets and establish IDAs to provide working Americans with strong incentives to build assets, obtain basic financial-management training and have access to secure and inexpensive banking services.
According to Lieberman, one-third of American families have no assets at all and the top one percent of Americans in terms of wealth own 40 percent of financial assets.
In order to establish a qualified IDA, families must agree to deposit a monthly minimum of at least $20. There is no maximum amount the family can save, but funds will be matched only up to $1,000.
Contract price for the once boarded-up, three-family house was $135,000, according to NHS Director James Paley. The total cost was $165,000.
"Dog fights were conducted here," Paley said. "It was a health and safety hazard.
"It's now been turned into a two-family home," Paley explained, "to give the Weeks plenty of room on the second and third floors for them and their five children and still provide an income on the first floor that will be invaluable to them in meeting their mortgage obligation."
Nelson Mercado, district director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., said his organization supplies NHS with as much as $200,000 per year to help fund a variety of housing programs. It also provides technical assistance when necessary.
"We're trying to be involved in any program that educates consumers and invests in the inner city," added Claffee of his bank's role.
Paley called the partnership "a great example of how different programs can work together to provide housing for everyone."
Nappier said the program represents "an opportunity to make a real investment in people.
"It will make a real difference in their lives and we're proving every day that it can happen and it can work. It's a true model that shows what can be achieved when everyone works together for a common goal," Nappier said.
According to Paley, there are funds available for others to take advantage of the IDA program. To learn more, call Citizens Bank at 860-638-4441.
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