Day: October 26, 2004

(Washington, DC) Stanley Jackson, Director, Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), announces the implementation of the American Dream Down-Payment Initiative (ADDI). ADDI aims to increase the homeownership rate, especially among lower income households, and tenants of public and assisted housing. ADDI also seeks to revitalize and stabilize communities.

ADDI will help first-time homebuyers with the biggest hurdle to homeownership: down payment and closing costs. The program was created to assist low-income, first-time homebuyers in purchasing single-family homes by providing funds for down payment, and closing costs. The maximum amount of assistance, under this initiative, per eligible household will be $10,000. Eligible households will receive assistance under this initiative in the form of a forgivable loan.

Eligibility Requirements:

Individuals must be residents of the District of Columbia and must have legally resided in the District of Columbia for at least one year at the time of application

Individuals must be first-time homebuyers. (A first-time homebuyer is defined as an individual and his or her spouse who have not owned a home during the three-year period prior to the purchase of a home in the District of Columbia.)

Individuals must be able to secure a first-trust mortgage from a reputable lender.

Applicants’ income must not exceed the following limits:

1 Person 2 Person 3 Person 4 Person 5 Person 6 Person 7 Person 8 Person

$40,250 $46,000 $51,750 $57,500 $62,100 $66,700 $71,300 $75,900

Community-Based Organizations will begin accepting applications for the American Dream Downpayment Initiative on November 15, 2004.

Contact the organization nearest your residence to schedule a pre-qualification interview

I was wandering around my agency, I’ll just call the Death Star, looking to nab some extra office supplies, when I happened upon a group of Imperial Stormtroopers talking about DC housing prices. I could not help myself, I joined in the conversation. I made a comment explaining why some neighborhoods are getting so pricey in that the area was getting better. One trooper looked at me with a steely look and asked, “What do you mean by better?”

In one second I noticed I was standing on the edge of a muck hole of race and class issues, so I said, “Oh, the crime has gone down.” The trooper reflected, agreed and went on talking.

I keep forgetting the race and class issues when I say the neighborhood is getting better. Some can interpret the statement negatively, and they do have a point, as for some others “better” means doing away with the old residents of a neighborhood. I have seen articles in the Washington Post about how older residents feel threatened by newcomers who demand a different way of life. These newcomers are usually white and middle class and the old timers are black with a wide range of income levels.

But what do I mean by better? I feel safer. Whether not I actually AM safer is another thing but I FEEL safer walking down the street, going home. I can chalk it up to not seeing as many people hanging out in certain spots and the crowd of young people loitering down the block seems to have dwindled a bit. Joggers & dog walkers, they strangely make me feel safer, despite all my complaints about them.

I also mean better in aesthetics. An abandoned house is not a pretty thing. Every other house on the block abandoned is just plain ugly and depressing. Rehabbed houses, new construction, and sometimes a new paint job make it easy on the eyes when walking down the street. At times, a house can be inspiring and uplifting, far better than being depressed by decay.

Another “better” is being able to spend my money in my neighborhood. If there are more opportunities for me to go out and eat or buy somewhere near my home, that is a good thing. I am trying to train myself to go to Logan Hardware over the chaotic Rhode Island Ave Home Depot. I do try to keep an eye open for businesses close to home worthy of my money. And if it is just one thing, like milk, I will go to G&G quickie mart. Before, I had to leave Shaw to buy somethings or the mini marts had nothing I wanted to buy or were too icky to even think of walking in.

It’s getting better.

Hopefully, the neighborhood can keep all her citizens black, white and latino, working class to upper middle class, and all who work for “better”.