What’s Up? with Merlene

Two years ago, all Don Carberry wanted to do was clean up the bad credit he had garnered after a failed marriage and an affair with the bottle that lasted too long.

“One day I woke up and said this isn’t working out,” Carberry said. “I was living out of my car.”

After coming to his senses more than six years ago, the 62-year-old disabled veteran and survivor of three strokes did what he was supposed to do to re-establish his credit and his life.

“I wasn’t really thinking about buying a house,” he said. “I didn’t think I could afford it.”

But he soon learned he could do just that through Faith Community Housing Foundation’s new Homeownership Program. Carberry was able to buy a brand new home built for low-income Fayette County residents. He bought the three-bedroom, two-bath house for $67,500. It had appraised at $112,000.

His was the first home bought under the new program. The house was built for another potential owner who backed out a year ago after it was completed. It sat empty all that time.

“It is a brand new house,” Carberry said. “The last place I lived wasn’t this large or this nice.”

Grants of $20,000 from Kentucky Housing Corporation and $25,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank, brought the home’s mortgage down to an amount Carberry’s fixed income could afford.

And, Ron Ides, executive director of FCHF, said the financial picture has gotten brighter. KHC has doubled the amount of grants for first-time home buyers can receive from $20,000 to $40,000.

That is a part of the monies that help potential homeowners fill in the gap between their low income or their insufficient money for down payments and closing costs, and their buying a home.

“With those kinds of ingredients and that kind of gap funding, I have to believe there are people out there who can take advantage of this, just like Donald,” Ides said.

Carberry’s mortgage payment is $481.62, and so far he has paid about $53 in utility bills on the all-electric home. He lives on social security and Veterans Administration disability payments.

FCHF will build new energy-efficient two to four bedroom homes for qualified buyers with family incomes as low as 50 percent of the average median income, which would be $27,000 for a family of three.

Buyers must agree to live in the homes for 10 years and pay the mortgage on time.

Prior to purchase, the buyers must go through financial literacy classes provided through REACH, Inc., which partners with FCHF to highlight household budgeting, banking basics, understanding credit reports, addressing delinquencies, getting to understand the responsibilities of homeownership.

Upon completion, the buyer can choose to go through the FCHF program and buy a new house which will be built on one of a few lots FCHF owns in the downtown area and a couple proposed for the Georgetown Street Non-Profit Development near New Circle Road.

FCHF then helps potential home buyers choose the sites and house plans they like and discusses the upfront money required, special grants and programs available to them and connect them with lenders to complete the purchase process. “We work in partnership with Central Bank & Trust and Kentucky Housing to ensure they get a low interest loan,” Ides said.

The foundation, a non-profit collaboration of 13 faith-based institutions in Lexington committed to working to provide safe and affordable housing to low-income families, also has houses for rent and rent-to-own houses.

After renting a small apartment for the past six years, Carberry couldn’t be happier.

He said he spent about 18 months in the pre-purchase classes and only decided to buy a house earlier this year.

He lives on the first floor of his two-story house because navigating the stairs is difficult. And Carberry has put a bedroom set in layaway and hopes to buy a washer and dryer and a sofa when the government’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers comes in.

For now, he only needs his chair, his bed and the TV.

Ides wants others in Lexington to find affordable housing as well.

“For many low-income, first-time home buyers, the process of buying a home can be intimidating, if not impossible,” he said. “In terms of direct service, FCHF along with REACH can help people think through how they can budget, save and get assistance to buy their own homes.”

For more information call FCHF at (859) 270-7324, or visit the website at www.faithcommunityhousing.org.

(Photo by David Perry)