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August 2002
29
Hotline will Help Some Buy New Homes
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST
August 29, 2002
U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., announced Wednesday he has
established a telephone hotline to put minorities, low-income families and
households headed by women on the road toward buying their first homes.
The hotline number -- 1-800-977-1969 -- is available to
citizens in Rowan, Cabarrus, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford and Mecklenburg
counties, which make up Watt's12th District.
Watt made stops in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Charlotte and
Salisbury Wednesday to unveil the home ownership initiative called WOW -- "With
Ownership, Wealth."
The effort results from a housing task force Watt's office
organized last year and supports the national WOW program sponsored by the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Staff manning the hotline will connect potential first-time
homeowners with resources in their communities that already are working toward
the home ownership goals.
According to recent census data, the national rate of home
ownership is about 68 percent, but minorities are only at 49 percent. A similar
disparity exists here in North Carolina.
In Salisbury Wednesday, Watt and members of his housing task
force met at the new Salisbury Community Development Corp. home just weeks away
from completion on West Cemetery Street. The Salisbury Community Development
Corp. provides training and counseling for potential first-time homeowners as
part of qualifying them for new homes built in established neighborhoods through
private-public partnerships.
Anibal Cruz and his two daughters will own the first home in
the Jersey City neighborhood, where the the Community Development Corp. plans to
build 11 other new houses in coming months.
The Community Development Corp. is working with the the city
of Salisbury, local lending institutions, architect Karen Alexander, Max Spear
Construction and the N.C. Housing Finance Agency.
"This is the best place to bring in WOW," said Steve Fisher,
a Community Development board member and representative of F&M Bank, "because
you're preaching to the choir."
Watt said he waited to unveil the With Ownership, Wealth
initiative until he was sure the infrastructure was in place.
"I wanted it to have substance in the 12th Congressional
District," Watt said. "I didn't want it to be a public relations gimmick."
Watt said he and the task force realized through its
discussions that plenty of resources exist in the district through efforts of
local governments, local community development corporations, the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development, lenders, Realtors and credit counselors.
But often the mechanism was missing to get people started in
the process, plus make sure they weren't abandoned in the midst of their
efforts. The hotline will lead, for example, to counseling on issues such
personal credit, the lending process, financial literacy and affordable housing
stock.
"We look forward to working with this program, for we have
realized for quite a while that home ownership is a key," Salisbury City Manager
David Treme said.
Watt started his day talking about the program in interviews
and events in Winston-Salem and Greensboro. By the time he reached Charlotte at
1 p.m., the hotline already had received 40 telephone calls from the
Greensboro-Winston-Salem area, he said.
"If we can't deliver," he said, "we're going to be in
trouble."
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or
mwineka@salisburypost.com.
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