Precinct Reporter Group News

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login

logo

Precinct Reporter Group News

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • What Holds Up COVID Vaccines

  • Black Doctors Call for Urgent Action During COVID-19 Crisis

  • Blood Runs Low: Calls for Black Donors

  • LBUSD: Member Erik Miller Excited to Begin Work

  • Tustin Mayor Letitia Clark Discusses Goals

Latest PRGNews
Home›Latest PRGNews›Free $30K Loan to Fix Up The House

Free $30K Loan to Fix Up The House

By Precinct Reporter News
July 5, 2018
3537
0
Share:

By Dianne Anderson

Nothing beats a loan that you never have to pay back.

Probably one of the harder tasks for Kathy Baker Brann in the coming months will be giving away a cool $30,000 to homeowners that need help fixing up their properties.

The main qualification is the homeowner must be low income.

Through the City Owner-Occupied Residential Rehabilitation Program, the  silent second mortgage loan drops away, and after ten years, it totally disappears. Or, if the owner decides to sell the house, the silent second will decrease prorated, and the loan could be paid through profits on the sale.

“Ultimately, it’s forgiven. The good news is that you don’t have to pay any payments on it,” said Brann, director of Economic and Housing Development at the City of San Bernardino.

The program recently started, and as far as she’s concerned, the more accessing services, the merrier.

“If we could get a block or two of neighbors that want to do rehab on their property, that would be huge because we would be really making an impact to a particular neighborhood,” she said.

She’d like to see San Bernardino looking a little more like Oceanside, minus the ocean. The city is about the same size, and at one time, it had many similar challenges – the gangs, barred buildings, barred liquor stores.

She remembers what it took to bring that city up from the trenches. There, she led redevelopment for eight years, and said mostly what it needed was a little extra love, negotiating, organizing, and lots of paint.

Brann, also came over from San Bernardino County, where she spearheaded several programs, including a Bloomington development of 70 senior units, and a 6,500 square foot library for the county.

She has been at the city of San Bernardino since September, and is now trying to reach the low-income community with helpful housing programs.

“Sometimes people are leery of government in general and everything that the city has gone through. It sounds like free money, and they think that can’t be true,” she said.

The terms are a deferred payment loan for ten years with the interest rate at zero percent. Starting at year six, the loan starts dropping off at 20 percent. In ten years, it’s completely forgiven.

Those with code violations may find it hard to come up with money to make repairs, and the loan could be a great help. She said a lot of older homes don’t have air conditioning. For low-income families, a roof repair at $5-10,000 damage could be devastating. The loan is  available for interior and exterior painting, plumbing, electrical, heating, hot water heaters, and other types of health and safety repairs.

The department is trying to drum up community awareness as a way to help clean up some of the neighborhoods.

“We have a decent amount of money for this program through federal funds,” she said.

The city is using outside HUD-approved nonprofit consultant Neighborhood  Partnership Housing  Services, which runs the program. Clients would submit applications to NPHSINC.org to verify income for whatever repairs are needed.

Broken and boarded up windows are citywide. She said fixing up the community also raises the bar for housing stock, and the city’s property owners. She said they want to help them have clean, safe homes to live in.

In the next two months, she is also rolling out a downpayment assistance program to increase homeownership, often the hardest part of any home buying experience. It usually runs $50-60,000 to get into a home without carrying Private Mortgage Insurance.

“We’re hoping to have $50-60,000 for downpayment assistance. That’s 20 percent that you don’t have to pay the PMI,” she said.

Another rehab is on the way. The city is looking to a commercial investment and facade enhancement for 40th street as the gateway to Lake Arrowhead and the mountains. Although not yet approved, they are also gearing up to move on the 6.5 acres, about 27 vacant properties on 5th Street between H and F streets, that the redevelopment agency had acquired over the years. They will be working with property owners to redevelop that area with a commercial facade.

“We want to show that the city is serious in investing in these areas so that property owners and businesses will invest as well,” she said.

She likes to take advantage of the opportunity where she can find it. She said a lot of developers are looking to rental subdivisions.

“I hit them up and say if you want to do something positive in the city, why don’t you send x-amount of paint and send people out and help us clean up an entire block.”

In Oceanside, she would target a two-block area at a time, come in with dumpsters, and different groups and developers would spend an entire weekend painting and cleaning the community. Droves of people donated time, money and paint. To handle all the debris, they would get trash companies to drop off dumpsters, and haul the trash without charging the city.

“Oceanside was the ugly duckling of San Diego. We had 13 documented gangs, and now you wouldn’t recognize the downtown compared to when I started there,” she said

She welcomes all who want help, or want to volunteer, contact
Brann_Ka@SBCity.org or (909) 384-7259

Or, https://nphsinc.org/fix-your-home

Tagshousingloan programsprecinct reporterSan BernardinoSan Bernardino County
Previous Article

Communities of Excellence Event Set For July ...

Next Article

Black Press Challenges Fake News at Annual ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Precinct Reporter News

Related articles More from author

  • Latest PRGNews

    Dr. Betters Is New SBCSS Equity Chief

    March 11, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Governor Health Corps Initiative to Expand Workforce

    March 31, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Legislation to Rename Post Office For “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes

    March 5, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Eyes Open: Child Abuse Reports Drop

    April 16, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    SoCal Black Chamber to Host Awards Luncheon

    February 6, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Health Fair Set for Sat., Sept. 15 in Rialto

    September 13, 2018
    By Precinct Reporter News

You might be interested

  • Latest PRGNews

    CSUSB, Cal Poly Host Black History Month Events

  • Latest PRGNews

    Redlands Stays Perfect in SCIAC Play

  • Latest PRGNews

    Prison Can Have Far-Reaching Effects on How Black Women Parent

Ads

Find us on Facebook

Precinct Reporter News Group

Your local news resource for 50 years in the Inland Empire, Orange County, Long Beach and surrounding areas!

To subscribe or advertise, call 909.889.0597

About us

  • Broadcasting & Media Production Company
    357 W. 2nd Street
    San Bernardino, California, CA 92401
  • mailto:sales@precinctreporter.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • What Holds Up COVID Vaccines

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 14, 2021
  • Black Doctors Call for Urgent Action During COVID-19 Crisis

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 14, 2021
  • Blood Runs Low: Calls for Black Donors

    By Precinct Reporter News
    January 14, 2021
  • IE/OC Prostate and Breast Cancer, Change the Menu

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • Join our Recipe Competition!

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • SB Budget Cuts CDBG

    SB CDBG Cuts Have Local Nonprofits Braced for the Worst

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015

Follow us

© Powered by Hotspotwebsites.net. All rights reserved.