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What's New at CHI Archive
Grants of $25,000 Available to First Time Homebuyers in Westchester County
- Applicants may earn up to nearly $100,000 per year -
March 5, 2013: Community Housing Innovations, Inc. today announced its receipt of $400,000 in down payment assistance from the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation. Unlike previous awards that limited recipients to 80% of the Area Median Income, the new eligibility standards are higher. Families may now earn as much as 90%--or $96,600 a year for a family of four.
“An income of nearly $100,000 per year sounds like a lot of money,” said CHI Executive Director Alexander Roberts, “But when you live in Westchester, it doesn’t qualify you to purchase much housing at all. Down payment assistance of up to $25,000 can mean the difference between renting and buying for many families.”
In 16 years, Community Housing Innovations (CHI) has provided $11 million in down payment assistance grants and free counseling to over 450 first time homebuyers with incomes up to 80% of the Area Median Income. Today, however, thanks to an award of $400,000 from the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation, the nonprofit agency is expanding its First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program allowing higher income people to participate. The move to assist higher income households is part of an ongoing effort by the organization to increase workforce housing options and to recognize an underserved market – namely, first-time homebuyers making too much money to be considered low-income, but who are still unable to afford the expensive housing market in Westchester.
 Cristina Peralta, a personal banker working at a Yonkers branch, just closed on a Yonkers co-op, using a $19,000 down payment assistance grant from CHI. Ms. Peralta, who lived in the Bronx, now lives ten minutes from her job.
Ms. Peralta said, “The free counseling from CHI is just as important as the money. I originally was going to buy another apartment but CHI urged me to get a home inspection, even though it was a co-op. There were so many things the inspector discovered that thankfully I backed out of the deal. The new co-op I found is much better.”
With the new award, the CHI Homebuyer Assistance Program now offers grants of up to $25,000 each for households at or below 90% of AMI, with the actual amount based on the need of the applicant. Each grant will include a mortgage with a recapture obligation balance that will decline to zero after 10 years. To qualify, the property must be within Westchester County and may be a house, coop or condo. Reflecting the state’s commitment to improve existing housing, at least 51% of the value of the grant must be applied to renovation work to restore the home and implement energy efficiency initiatives.
In order to be eligible for the grants, prospective homebuyers must attend a first-time homebuyer orientation seminar and complete an application documenting that their overall gross household income does not exceed the maximum income guidelines. The 2012 maximum income (112% of the Low Income Limit, which approximately equates to 90% of the Area Median Income (AMI) ) for Westchester is $67,700 for an individual; $77,400 for a two-person family; $87,000 for three-person family; and $96,600 for a four person family, etc. The homebuyer must be able to contribute at least 3% of the purchase price to the transaction. Orientations being held in March are posted on CHI’s website. For Long Island orientations click here. For Westchester/Hudson Valley orientations click here.
For more information on Community Housing Innovations’ Homebuyer Assistance Program, call Julie Stern, Senior Manager, Homeownership at 1-877-HUDCOUNSELING or email jstern@communityhousing.org.
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 February 2013 Newsletter
Town Targets CHI's Hidden Cove
On January 29, Newsday ran this story regarding Southampton Town's effort to close CHI's Supervised Family Residence (SFR) in the Town, know as Hidden Cove, which formerly operated as a motel. The Town is arguing that Hidden Cove is improperly operating on the basis of the site's zoning.
By taking this action, the town seems to closing its eyes to the growing problem of homelessness in its jurisdiction without providing any solutions. CHI has been in regular contact with the Department of Social Services and the County Executive's office on the matter. A Newsday editorial on February 7 expressed its support for the facility and how it is helping families in need.
Outgoing Suffolk County Social Services Commissioner Cites Local Zoning Laws as Cause for Homelessness
Outgoing Suffolk County Social Services Commissioner Gregory Blass wrote an opinion piece for Newsday on January 30 related to the growing homeless problem and the impediments to fix the problem as the result of the towns’ zoning laws.
 CHI Offers Plan for WestH.E.L.P.
Responding to a request for proposals from Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, Community Housing Innovations, Inc. offered its plan for the homeless shelter facility formerly operated by WestH.E.L.P. CHI’s plan would invest $3 million in private financing to rehabilitate the 108 apartments into affordable rental housing for seniors. Rents are projected at $895 per month, including heat.
CHI Executive Director Alexander Roberts said, “Since more than half of Greenburgh's seniors are ‘cost-burdened’, according to HUD, it is important to maintain the WestH.E.L.P. apartments as affordable rental housing.”
Read More »
Student Nursing Program
From February through May, the Port Jefferson Station shelter will be hosting 3 sets of students from the Stony Brook Nursing Program. The students will be assisting CHI clients in the areas of budgeting, health, hygiene and parenting. In the past, similar groups have provided information about healthy eating, including food pyramids and creating a 30 day menu with a food stamp budget. Past student groups have also provided presentations on proper hand washing and how to care for basic illnesses.
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Read CHI's 2012 Annual Report
December 26, 2012
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Education Versus Regulation The Battle for the First Time Homebuyer
HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agency Offers Intensive Course November 1st In Hauppauge
October 27, 2012
HAUPPAUGE, NEW YORK. October 29, 2012. In a perfect world, first time homebuyers would spend three to six months learning about buying and owning a home. They would take classes on assessing the home’s physical condition, determining how it is valued, learning about adjustable and fixed rate mortgages, and what kinds of insurance to buy.
Click here to read more.
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 CHI Holds Successful Fast Track™ Event to Stop Foreclosure
October 15, 2012
On Friday October 5 and Saturday October 6, Community Housing Innovations, Inc. (CHI) a HUD approved housing counseling agency, held its fifth Fast Track™ Loan Modification (FTLM) event. The event was held in conjunction with Bank of America, and for the first time in Westchester County, CHI hosted a representative from Fannie Mae’s Foreclosure Prevention and Borrower Outreach Team who met with homeowners.
Over the course of the two day event, delinquent BOA mortgagors as well as mortgagors with Fannie Mae loans met face to face with bank representatives in order to discuss the specifics of each homeowner’s loan modification application. Participants walked away with a clearer idea of what next steps needed to be taken by the bank and by the homeowner to obtain a possible loan modification, thereby avoiding foreclosure. Bank representatives served 53 households in all – 22 Bank of America mortgagors and 31 Fannie Mae mortgagors.
Click here to read more.
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Fannie Mae Counselors to Attend Free Foreclosure Prevention Event for the First Time
September 17, 2012
WHITE PLAINS, NY. September 14, 2012. For the first time in a Westchester County Fast Track Loan Modification event, counselors from Fannie Mae will be available to meet with homeowners facing foreclosure on Friday and Saturday, October 5th and 6th in White Plains.
Click here to read more.
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 CHI’s Negotiated Auction™ Finds a Buyer in Two Weeks
July 11, 2012
“We have demonstrated proof of concept,” said Alexander Roberts, executive director of Community Housing Innovations, Inc., after completion of the successful “auction” of 86 Second Avenue, East Rockaway on Sunday, July 1, 2012. Roberts spoke about the nonprofit agency’s method of selling foreclosed properties called “Negotiated Auction™.”
Click here to read more.
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Auction on Long Island: How Homebuyers Can Get a Great Deal
East Rockaway, New York. June 20, 2012. All you need is $100 and a pre-qualification in order to bid on a newly renovated home in East Rockaway. Community Housing Innovations, Inc., a HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agency, has a new concept that allows average homebuyers to participate with confidence at an auction. The agency is offering a three-bedroom house at 86 Second Avenue, in which bidding starts at just $299,000 and where similar homes have sold recently for as much as $400,000.
Click here to read more.
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Volunteers Honored for Hosting Homeless Kids’ Birthdays
LongIslandPress.com
By Anna Dinger on June 7th, 2012
Birthday Wishes, a Huntington-based nonprofit group that throws birthday parties for homeless children, celebrated their own birthday bash last week to mark three years of volunteerism on Long Island.
Lisa Vasiloff, executive director and co-founder of Birthday Wishes, traveled from the group’s Newton, Mass. headquarters for their LI Volunteer Appreciation Day and to speak about how this grassroots organization has made a difference in the lives of more than 24,000 children in the past decade.
Click here to read more.
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COMMUNITY HOUSING INNOVATIONS TO HOST FIFTH FAST TRACK™ LOAN MODIFICATION WORKSHOP; HOMEOWNERS LOOKING FOR HELP WILL MEET WITH CHASE BANK REPS
posted 5/1/2012
WHITE PLAINS, NY (April 10) – For the third year in a row Community Housing Innovations (CHI) will host a three day event to help homeowners who are having difficulty paying their mortgages move closer to a resolution through one-on-one meetings with Chase Bank representatives. The event will take place on June 12, 13, and 14 at the CHI offices located at 190 East Post Road in White Plains.
The CHI Fast Track™ Loan Modification Program is a unique program designed by CHI, a HUD approved non-profit housing counseling agency, to remove roadblocks from the loan modification process by providing a forum for homeowners to have face-to-face contact with a bank’s representatives, leading to the bank making quicker homeowner relief decisions.
Click here to read more.
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A Prepaid Energy Efficient Car with Purchase of an Energy Efficient Home
Local realtor donates his commission to buyers in the form of prepaid new car leases
posted 1/18/2012
White Plains, NY. The brand new affordable homes at Minerva Place Condominium in White Plains come with the most advanced heating and cooling system available, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And now, with only three units left, there is an even greater incentive to own one -- the affordable homes, restricted to first-time homebuyers with incomes under about $100,000, come with an energy efficient car. Dmitry Khorosh, President of New York Real Estate and Funding Solutions, and a realty owner who arranges low-interest mortgages, has agreed to donate a prepaid, 24-month lease for a new Honda Civic, or comparable energy efficient car, to the buyers of the three remaining homes.
Click here for details.
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CHI and Suffolk County Locked in Battle with Southampton
posted 12/30/2011
With the number of homeless families soaring in Suffolk County, Suffolk County Commissioner Greg Blass has drawn a line in the sand against NIMBYism in Southampton. CHI recently opened a shelter for homeless families at a motel and some of the neighbors and politicians don’t like it.
Read the principled stand the Commissioner has taken…
Read the Southampton Press report.
Read the Newsday Editorial.
Hidden Cove served as a shelter when a similar crisis in homelessness occurred a decade ago.
CHI Awarded $640,000 by New York State for Down Payment Assistance to
Long Island Homeowners
It may be a terrific time to purchase a home with low interest rates and lower prices. And with CHI’s award from the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation, first time homebuyers may access up to $40,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance. With new higher income eligibility criteria, you may have income of up to about $90,000 a year, depending upon family size. To learn how you can access this funding and receive free homebuyer counseling, call 1-866-HUD COUNSELING, or Click Here.
posted 12/21/2011
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New Higher Income Limits for $25,000 Grant Released
Family of 4 may earn up to $92,826
Click Here for details.
posted 12/12/2011
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Ardsley Waterwheel Project Approved!
 On December 5, the Ardsley Village Board gave final site plan approval to the Waterwheel project, a 22-unit affordable condominium to be built on Saw Mill River Road in the village. The vote was unanimous.
The project includes 17 “fair and affordable” condominiums qualifying under the Westchester County/HUD Settlement, as well as five units designated as “workforce” housing at slightly higher, but still below-market prices with preferences for employees and volunteers of the village. The estimated prices for the two and three-bedroom affordable units will sell for around $200,000 and the workforce units between $350,000 and $360,000.
Click Here for the video.
For more information on the development, Click Here.
posted 12/12/2011
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 Community Housing Innovations Celebrates 20 Years
Software magnate turned energy independence crusader warns of economic crash without transportation fuel competition
White Plains, NY. November 18, 2011. What former Vice President Al Gore has done to sound the alarm about Global Warming, Eyal Aronoff hopes to do about America’s oil addiction and its link to economic disaster. Like Gore, Aronoff makes a presentation that provides a new perspective on solving the problem. He notes that while the media focuses on “alternative energy,” such as wind, solar, and nuclear, none of these technologies impact oil.
Aronoff discussed the price of gasoline as a cause of poverty and recession at Community Housing Innovations’ 20th anniversary luncheon on November 17th at 1 pm at the Greentree Country Club in New Rochelle. His presentation had the audience in rapt attention.
 “Oil is the dominant, nearly exclusive fuel in the transportation sector, where most pollution and greenhouse gases arise,” says Aronoff. “The United States spends $30 billion dollars on coal but $500 billion on oil. So, which do you think is more important?”
Aronoff noted that about one month ago, the non-partisan Peterson Institute issued a paper that found that one million Americans were pushed into poverty by increased gasoline prices, representing one-third of the increase in the poverty rate from 14.3% to 15.1%.
- Click here if you'd like to see Eyal Aronoff's call to action, it's on the web presented by his partner, Yossie Hollande.
- read more - posted 11/21/2011
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Community Housing Innovations to Feature Software Magnate Turned Energy Independence Advocate
Eyal Aronoff to be Keynote Speaker at 20th Anniversary Luncheon on Nov. 17th
What former Vice President Al Gore has done to sound the alarm about Global Warming, Eyal Aronoff hopes to do about America’s oil addiction and its link to economic disaster.
“Oil is the dominant, nearly exclusive fuel in the transportation sector, where most pollution and greenhouse gases arise,” says Aronoff. “The United States spends $30 billion dollars on coal but $500 billion on oil. So, which do you think is more important?”
Please join CHI and Eyal Aronoff on November 17th to celebrate 20 years of making a difference.
- read more - posted 11/15/2011
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JP MORGAN CHASE SETS PRECEDENT BY BRINGING UNDERWRITERS TO WESTCHESTER CHI
FAST TRACK® EVENT
September 15, 2011
White Plains, NY, September 15, 2011 - In a first for any nonprofit counseling agency in the nation, JP Morgan Chase has agreed to send a team of bank underwriters to White Plains with the ability to write loan modifications on the spot for homeowners facing foreclosure.
Chase has an active nationwide program offering such help through “800” numbers and local homeownership centers. However this is the first time the bank has been willing to send underwriters, with the power to give families relief on the spot, to work in collaboration with a nonprofit agency. The underwriters will be in White Plains for three days of private meetings with homeowners for what is called the CHI Fast Track® Loan Modification Event.
- read more - posted 9/15/2011
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Community View: A better world, and independence, through energy efficiency
Written by: Alexander Roberts
September 5, 2011
 I had an early morning meeting that bright, sunny morning of Sept. 11, 2001. It was yet another fruitless attempt to promote energy-saving geothermal heat pumps to the manager of an assisted living facility in Briarcliff Manor. When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, and then the second, I was so unnerved that on my way back to the office I drove 15 minutes in the wrong direction.
That was the year I discovered the power of energy efficiency in buildings to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, so I immediately saw the connection to 9/11, since Saudi Arabian oil money financed the attacks.
- read more - posted 9/7/2011
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Stop fighting, start crafting landmark housing deal for Westchester
Written by: Alexander Roberts
July 24, 2011
Since the Anti-Discrimination Center of New York and federal Department of Housing and Urban Development won a landmark $62 million settlement against Westchester County, affordable housing advocates have been in foxhole mode.
Why stand up to support the consent decree when you have a federal judge and HUD to do it? Especially when the county funds agencies like Community Housing Innovations, Inc., of which I am executive director, and we need the county's approval for all affordable housing development. Besides mandating the construction of 750 units of affordable housing, the settlement would end the exclusionary zoning that has made 31 of Westchester's 43 municipalities as segregated as the deep South, circa 1968.
- read more - posted 7/26/2011
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75 HOMEOWNERS FIND RELIEF at CHI FAST TRACK™ FORECLOSURE PREVENTION EVENT
June 21-June 23, 2011
 Catherine Griffin and her mother Elizabeth Doster, of Elmsford, NY have a story with a happy ending.
It began two years ago as they swam in a pool with millions of others losing their homes, trying to stay afloat while the bank holding their mortgage processed their application for a loan modification.
The process seemed endless and was fraught with misinformation and missing information. Calls to determine their status were either not answered or answered by call centers after unacceptably long delays. Once connected, anonymous representatives said their documents were lost or their applications lacked documentation. Of 1.1 million homeowners who tried to get a modification through a federal program that promised results in three months, most continue to wait in limbo for years.
Griffin and her mother were able to turn the tide when they heard about a White Plains, NY-based housing counseling not-for-profit, which was “fast tracking” the loan modification process. Community Housing Innovations (CHI) believed there was a better solution --organizing face-to- face meetings between banker and borrower.
- read more - posted 7/7/2011
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CHI receives 1.6 million from OTDA
 CHI received an award of $1,600,000 from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) for rehabilitation of River House, a shelter for 32 homeless single men in Long Island. CHI currently provides emergency housing and supportive services at this site, which was licensed by OTDA 2007 as an Adult Care Facility – Shelter. The building, was constructed sometime prior to 1965, however, and additional funding was needed to address a variety of short-term and long-term needs, including the alterations necessary to accommodate 32 residents, cosmetic and security upgrades, and the installation of a variety of energy-efficient improvements. The building already has a handicapped accessible ramp and accessible bathroom on the first floor to meet the needs of persons with disabilities.
Supportive services for the residents include 24/7 staffing. Case Managers assess, guide, assist, refer and motivate clients to follow and achieve goals set forth in the Independent Living Plan in order to attain functional independence and prompt progression to permanent housing.
(posted 6/20/2011)
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