Patrick delivers Compact progress report, hears ONE Mortgage success story
Posted on June 13, 2014
BOSTON, June 13, 2014 - When Gov. Deval Patrick stood on the steps of a Dorchester home last June and set new goals for helping first-time homebuyers, Angelina Goncalves was at work, taking one more step toward owning her own home.
One year later, the two found themselves together at the podium at Citizens Bank's Uphams Corner branch, Gov. Patrick announcing the initial success of the Massachusetts Homeownership Compact and Goncalves describing how she bought her home with a ONE Mortgage loan.
Patrick announced that 26 lending institutions have signed onto the Compact and have pledged to work with the state to make 10,000 loans in the next five years to first-time homebuyers at or below median income. Patrick also announced that first-time homebuyer programs offered by MHP and MassHousing and their lending partners have made 1,000 Compact-eligible loans since the start of the year.
One of those loans went to Goncalves, who bought a two-family home in Boston. "When I came to Boston from Cape Verde nine years ago when I was 18, I had two dreams - graduate from college and own my own home," said Goncalves. "Now I have graduated from college, I have a job and I own my own home."
A 2012 graduate of UMass-Boston with a degree in finance, Goncalves is employed as a bank operations manager. She took homebuyer education classes at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance. In March 2014, she and her fiance bought a two-family home with a ONE Mortgage loan from Santander Bank. "With our incomes, we could not have bought our home without this program," she said.
Administered by MHP and offered through participating lenders, ONE Mortgage is a new, simplified version of SoftSecond, which from 1991 through 2013 helped over 17,000 families purchase their first home. The shift from SoftSecond's two-loan structure to ONE loan was made to make it simpler for borrowers and easier for financial institutions to administer. Since announcing the transition from SoftSecond to ONE last year, 27 lenders have signed up for ONE Mortgage.
Lenders in attendance stressed the importance of the public and private sectors working together to provide opportunities for first-time homebuyers.
“The success of the Massachusetts Housing Compact is a great example of how everyone benefits when the private sector, government and community organizations work together to make neighborhoods vibrant and attract more investment,” said Jerry Sargent, President, Citizens Bank and RBS Citizens, Massachusetts. “We at Citizens Bank are pleased to continue our commitment to improving the economic health and vitality of our Commonwealth by leveraging our strengths as a bank to encourage home-ownership.”
"Santander is pleased to once again take part in the Massachusetts Homeownership Compact with our commitment of $50 million in new lending each year through 2016," said Michael D. Bruno, Boston and Northern New England regional president at Santander. "Our participation in this important initiative over the past 13 years has helped put affordable homeownership within reach of many deserving families and individuals in communities across the Commonwealth.”
Many of the 26 lending institutions that have signed onto the Compact sent representatives to meet with Gov. Patrick and other state officials in a roundtable discussion prior to Patrick's Compact announcement. Lenders told the governor about the effectiveness of the state's loan products, the lack of affordable homes to buy and the need for the state to invest more in financial literacy so that homebuyers don't get in over their heads.
The 26 lending institutions that have signed onto the Compact thus far are: Bay State Savings Bank, Blue Hills Bank, Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, Cambridge Trust, Chelsea Bank, Citizens Bank, Clinton Savings Bank, Dedham Institution for Savings, Eastern Bank, Enterprise Bank, First Citizens Federal Credit Union, Freedom Credit Union, Liberty Bay Credit Union, Mechanics Cooperative Bank, Middlesex Savings Bank, Mortgage Master, MountainOne Bank, New England Moves Mortgage Company, Pilgrim Bank, Rockland Trust Company, Santander, Southern Mass Credit Union, St. Mary’s Credit Union, The Savings Bank, William Raveis Mortgage and Winchester Cooperative Bank.
In addition to announcing the progress of the Homeownership Compact, Gov. Patrick also announced $9 million in state funding for five affordable homeownership developments around the state, and $1.5 million in funding for homebuyer education and foreclosure initiatives. Also, Sheila Dillon, the city of Boston's housing chief, announced that the city would be committing $1.5 million in homebuyer assistance to first-time homebuyers like Goncalves.
The five projects that are receiving state funding are:
Parcel 24 South in Boston: New Boston Ventures and the Asian CDC will work together to build 51 condominium units in Chinatown.
Massachusetts Mental Health Association/Roxbury Tenants of Harvard in Boston: This non-profit developer will construct a mixed-use, rental and ownership project in the Longwood Medical area. When completed, the project will contain 145 total units, including 85 condominiums, with 43 condominiums affordable to low or moderate income buyers.
Union Milford Homes in Lawrence: Lawrence Community Works (LCW) will use $450,000 in DHCD subsidy to construct three two-family ownership/rental units on abandoned sites in the North Common neighborhood.
Sachem’s Path on Nantucket: The non-profit Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC), working with Oxbow Associates, will use its award from DHCD to construct the first phase of this Nantucket project. The DHCD award will support 16 homeownership units.
Springfield Neighborhood Housing Services in Springfield: Neighborhood Housing Services of Springfield will use its DHCD award to help build six affordable modular homeownership units in the Old Hill/Six Corners neighborhood of the city – an area impacted by the June 2011 tornado.