Posted on March 23, 2015
BOSTON, March 23, 2015 --- Florence Hagins, a longtime homeownership advocate who once said getting the opportunity to own a home "changed my life" died on Saturday at the age of 67.
News of Hagins' death was announced by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, where Hagins worked for many years as a homeownership counselor to hundreds of low- and moderate-income homebuyers.
Hagins became the first homeowner to buy a home with SoftSecond Loan Program in 1991. Employed in the health care industry when she bought her home in Dorchester, Hagins eventually went to work for MAHA, where she became an effective activist in convincing lenders to join the program.
"I say that (SoftSecond changed my life) because it not only allowed me to provide a stable home," said Hagins. "It gave me the opportunity to spend many years working with an unbelievable group of women who wouldn't stop fighting for their commuinity."
SoftSecond was created by the state, the banking industry and nonprofit community groups to address the lack of mortgage financing to minorities and low-income families in Boston neighborhoods. Now known as ONE Mortgage, the two programs have combined to help 18,400 low- and moderate income families across the state buy their first home. The program is administered by MHP.
For more information, read the tribute to Hagins on the MAHA web site.