Housing Opportunities for Families: Developing Community Partnerships with a Focus on Home Sustainability

1. Housing Opportunities for Families: Developing Community Partnerships with a Focus on Home Sustainability Pamela Turner, Debbie Purvis, Mailyn Perez, Sharon Gibson, Luz Cooper & Al Burns University of Georgia

2. Workshop Objectives • Understanding the need for flexibility in CYFAR Programming • Lay of the ground in Colquitt County – Housing, People, & Change • Identifying stakeholders & building community partnerships • Identifying Pre- & Post-Purchase Housing Education Needs • Developing Programs that Promote Healthy, Safe and Sustainable Homeownership • Evaluating the impact – Outcomes to Date

3. Programming with Purpose • Be flexible – Be realistic • Identifying stakeholders – they might not be who you think • Sustaining homeownership is the primary goal of pre- and post-purchase education programs. • Pre-purchase counseling shown to reduce delinquencies (Hirad & Zorn, 2001) • Next Steps • Effectiveness of post-purchase counseling is inconclusive (Todd, 2005; Wiranowski, 2003) • Our intent • Foreclosure prevention • Maintaining the investment

4. Education - Before and after papers are signed • Why pre-purchase education? • What does the program look like? • High Need Audiences • One size does not fit all!

5. Before and After Papers are Signed: Pre & Post Purchase Education • Pre purchase • Basic Banking • Learning the language of homeownership • Post purchase • Maintenance • Living as part of a community • Keeping your head above water • Prevention • Credit good & bad

6. Voz de la Familia: Building flexibility into CYFAR • CYFAR philosophy • Recognizing opportunities • Adapting your program • Understanding and following the prescribed process

7. Colquitt County • Agricultural county which recently experienced significant expansion of industrial workforce • Increased economic growth resulted in demand for affordable housing and establishment of safe neighborhoods

8. Building Community Partnerships • UGA Partners: UGA Housing Demographics & Research studies; UGA Georgia Initiative for Community Housing - Moultrie/Colquitt County team; UGA Archway Partnership • Local Community Partners: USDA Rural Development, local banks & realtors, Moultrie Police Department,

9. Building a Sustainable Housing Program • Home Buyer Education • Housing Fairs • Financial literacy education • Education on banking and credit issues • Working with the faith community

10. Building Safe Neighborhoods • Extension CYFAR and the City of Moultrie working together • National Night Out • The City of Moultrie’s Community listening sessions • Community Safety surveys conducted by Valdosta State University

11. CYFAR Families & Their Stories • Safe neighborhoods & affordable housing for new immigrant families Achieving the American Dream

12. Lessons Learned • Need for trusted community members as the contact with the community (a Luz and Mailyn) • Strong partnerships with stakeholders buy in (AL) • Need for strong content knowledge (Pamela) • Don’t be afraid to dream big • Be ready to react to happy accidents – make the most of every opportunity • Willingness to stay the course even when it gets tough (Sharon & Debbie)

13. Working for Sustainable Home Ownership Pamela Turner prturner@uga.edu Sharon Gibson smsgibs@uga.edu Debbie Purvis dpurvis@uga.edu Al Burns al.burns@ga.usda.gov Mailyn Perez mperez@uga.edu Luz Cooper lmcooper@uga.edu