The mission of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) is to assist those who qualify
as low income and/or disabled individuals to obtain housing.
But HUD isn't in the lending business, rather they insure
the loans made by lenders to allow borrowers to qualify with
less than adequate income. This "insurance" process
has allowed hundreds of thousands of first-time and low-income
buyers to purchase their first home.
Before
Renovation
OHAS was a recipient
of one of only two HOPE 3 grants issued by HUD to organizations
in Oregon in 1993-94. Our HOPE 3 program was designed to assist
low-income buyers in Marion and Polk Counties. We were charged
with obtaining foreclosed properties in need of painting,
remodeling and more extensive repair. Upon completion of the
upgrades, we sold the properties at below-market prices to
those who had gone through a special home ownership education
class.
After Remodeling
OHAS acquired, renovated
and sold eighteen homes between 1994 and 1998, at which time
we ended our participated in the program. The homes ranged
from Jefferson to Silverton to Independence, with the majority
located in the Salem/Keizer area. All but four of the eighteen
buyers still enjoy residing in and caring for their homes.
HUD's HOPE program is in it's last iteration (HOPE VII.) The
program has, in most areas of the United States, run out of
homes that, after the expense of being renovated, will still
qualify under the term "affordable" for first-time
home buyers.
Prior to the HOPE 3
program, from 1981 to 1994, OHAS repaired and made habitable
over 900 rural housing units occupied by low- and very low-income
households. The program was funded by Federal Rural Home Development
repair funds in addition to Farmers Home Administration (FmHA)
Technical Assistance Grants and FmHA 504 Program funds.
During that same period,
from 1987 to 1994, OHAS was a Federally Certified Comprehensive
Housing Counseling Agency, providing individuals with information
concerning credit concerns from mortgage default, reverse
mortgages, pre-purchase counseling and landlord-tenant problems.
In 1995, a consortium, sponsored by HUD, provided housing
counseling training to social service agencies in the Mid-Willamette
Valley. OHAS developed the Housing Counseling Manual for that
meeting and continues in it's roll as a housing counselor
today.
