Mission possible: Service makes home ownership a reality

Todd Ford and his young daughter, Cami Jo, had lived for eight years in a tiny apartment.

There was so little room, Ford said, that it was hard for Cami Jo to have friends stay the night.

“She had gone from a baby to a 9-year-old there, so she really didn’t see it as small as I did,” Ford said.

In November, Cami Jo, now 10, finally realized what she’d been missing out on when she and her father moved into their brand new three-bedroom home on Atherton Court.

“I was thinking that there was no way I was going to be able to get into any kind of a new house,” Ford said.

Tenants to Homeowners made the transition possible for Ford and his daughter. The nonprofit organization buys, builds and rehabilitates homes that it then sells to low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers. It also administers the Homeowners Out Of Tenants, or HOOT program, which provides financial assistance to low-income homebuyers.

Learning the ropes

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Ford couldn’t be happier with the program that put him and his daughter in their dream home.

“For first-time homeowners, it’s an amazing deal,” he said.

To qualify for HOOT funds, Ford had to attend Tenants to Homeowners’ First Time Homebuyer Education classes, which teach about home ownership, lender and Realtor roles, financing, closing, home maintenance and local programs to assist low-income homebuyers.

The classes also cover credit issues, said Rebecca Buford, assistant director of Tenants to Homeowners.

“A lot of times, people don’t really know what kinds of things they need to have cleared up before they can even get a bank loan,” she said.

Once they’ve learned the ropes, income-qualified “students” can move on to getting a HOOT loan, which comes from Department of Housing and Urban Development funds directed to Tenants to Homeowners by Lawrence. The loans provide 20 percent toward the cost of a home through a second mortgage that doesn’t accrue interest or come due until the homeowner sells the house, Buford said.

Tenants to Homeowners will have First-Time Homebuyers workshops from 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month in 2002. The free workshops are at the United Way Center, 2518 Ridge Court, are open to the public. Registration is not required.The classes cover issues of home ownership, lender and Realtor roles, financing, closing, maintenance and local programs to assist low-income homebuyers. For more information, call Tenants to Homeowners at 842-5494.

“It’s a really great program to give people the incentive to stay in the home,” she said. “We think home ownership creates stability for the community and gives people a motivation to invest.”

A tough market

Although Ford works for Hallmark and makes “pretty good money,” being a single parent is expensive.

“In Lawrence, trying to find a house within my budget was almost impossible,” he said.

Even with the HOOT program to assist low-income individuals, affordable housing in Lawrence is getting harder to find, Buford said.

That’s where projects like Atherton Court come in, she said. Tenants to Homeowners has built six homes in the East Lawrence cul-de-sac and then sold them to low-income homebuyers at cost.

“It’s just really amazing,” Ford said. “I never thought that my first house could be a new one. I’m 41. Until my daughter was born, owning anything didn’t seem to be a big deal to me.

“She’s got room now for her friends to come over and spend the night. She’s very happy.”