FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2002

Contact:
Steve Murray
482-7345

News from Housing Development Corporation of the Clinch Valley
Tina Ratliff Purchases First Home through Section 8 to Homeownership Program

Homeownership has taken a little longer for Tina Ratliff to accomplish than others, but the result is the same - pride in her new home and satisfaction in having a place to call her own.

The single mother of two, who has received Section 8 rental assistance through the Oak Ridge Housing Authority for almost 12 years, is the first to take advantage of a new Section 8 to Homeownership program here. She accepted the keys to her new home in East Village in Oak Ridge last week, feeling a little like a pioneer whose move will help others to move from rental subsidies to homeownership.

The Housing Development Corporation of the Clinch Valley, based in Oak Ridge, began the program this year and partnered with other agencies, including the Oak Ridge Housing Authority, to encourage those receiving rental assistance to purchase their own homes.

"I think my buying a home will be a good opening of the doors for a lot of people who want to do this, who have always wanted to do this," Ratliff said. "This has always been one of my dreams, to own a home, and now it's here. I am just in awe."

Her path to homeownership began about four years ago, when she signed up for the Family Self-Sufficiency program offered by the housing authority. The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, aims to help public housing and Section 8 participants achieve economic independence through educational programs, support services, and helping them find better employment..

Ratliff worked with the program staff to develop a service plan, and set goals of finding a better-paying job, leaving public assistance, and purchasing a home. She found the improved job when, while working as a teacher assistant at Robertsville Middle School, she was offered a job with the school system's extended child care program. She is now site director of the ECC program at Oak Ridge Preschool.

Under the Section 8 program, when a participant's income increases, rent also increases. The participant pays the rent increase, but the Family Self-Sufficiency Program provides an escrow account that puts the money aside for the participant. To get the money back, the individual must complete a service plan that requires finding gainful employment and being free from public assistance for one year. The program encourages people to use the money to purchase a home.

Ratliff met the goals of her service plan and decided to purchase a home. The Housing Development Corporation selected her for the new Section 8 to Homeownership program and enrolled her in the corporation's Homebuyer Education class. With that completed, she began house hunting with Sharon Bishop, with Linda Brown Realty, for a home in the $60,000 to $70,000 range. She found her dream home on Alhambra Street in April.

Union Planters provided the first mortgage, and the Housing Development Corporation is providing the second mortgage, for down payment and closing costs, helping make the purchase of the home more affordable. Ratliff's costs at closing amounted to little more than one percent, and her out-of-pocket payments on her first mortgage are about $20 more than her rent, she said.

Her Section 8 rental assistance payments will pay the second mortgage, a benefit of the Section 8 to Homeownership program.

"HDC understands what a difference homeownership can mean to someone's quality of life," said Steve Murray, HDC of the Clinch Valley executive director. "The Section 8 to Homeownership program creates a model to return Section 8 to its original intent of moving people from transitional to permanent housing."

Murray added that Ratliff was very patient in dealing with the bureaucracy of two public agencies, HUD, and the bank. "She is the pacesetter for everyone else from the Oak Ridge Housing Authority in terms of purchasing a house," he said.

Among those welcoming Ratliff and her children, Kayla Carmack and Ryan Ratliff, to their new home during a celebration there Thursday morning were Jeff Reynolds, from the Federal Home Loan Bank in Cincinnati, and Ralph Perrey, director of Fannie Mae's Tennessee Partnership Office in Nashville. Fannie Mae, operating under a federal charter as the largest non-bank financial services company in the world, will make a 10-year debt investment of $250,000 to recapitalize HDC's Section 8 to Homeownership program, Perrey said. HDC will work with various area lenders to originate the first mortgages, and Fannie Mae expects to purchase these first mortgages from participating lenders.

"Fannie Mae is excited to support the nation's most innovative program in Section 8 homeownership," Perrey said. The new initiative, allowing Section 8 recipients to use their rent subsidies toward a second mortgage, was approved by HUD in 2000. HDC of the Clinch Valley, working to provide affordable housing options in a five-county area, is the second organization in Tennessee to offer the Section 8 to Homeownership Program, and the first in East Tennessee.

"Jim Carson (executive director of the Oak Ridge Housing Authority), and Steve Murray deserve a lot of credit for this happening here. It's and out-of-the-box kind of program, and you really need a Housing Authority that is ready to step out of the box," Perrey said. "There also has to be a non-profit, like HDC, willing to step up and provide gap financing, the down payment loan. We make sure financing is available to non-profits like HDC so they have lending capital to make this possible."

Ratliff, with the help of family, is refinishing hardwood floors that had been carpeted. She's also looking for furnishings, including a refrigerator and furniture for her children's bedrooms, living room and dining room, for her new home.

For more information about the Section 8 to Homeownership program, consumers may call the Housing Development Corporation in Oak Ridge at 482-7345.

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