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Contents
Introduction: What is HOYO?
Success Stories
Central Texas Stories
El Paso Stories (Espanol)
Local Projects
The HOYO Process
HOYO Needs You!
Contact us for more information.
Texas Home of Your Own
Coalition
1016 La Posada
Suite 145
Austin, TX 78752
1-800-988-4696
info@ucptexas.org |
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Houston
Success Stories
Beary
Happy Home
A teddy bear “welcome” wreath hanging on the front door greets visitors to Annette Novakoski’s home. It’s a hint of the warm and friendly treatment Annette bestows upon her guests—and it provides an early clue about what you’ll find inside—Teddy bears! She has hundreds of them—in every imaginable form and fashion—peeking out of display cabinets, lounging on the furniture, standing guard in the kitchen and, generally, occupying every available nook and cranny.
Annette’s collection of cuddly creatures provides a cheerful backdrop as she guides visitors on a tour of the house she purchased five years ago with assistance from the Houston Home of Your Own program. She is proud of her status as Houston HOYO’s first homebuyer—almost as proud as she is of the home she describes as “just perfect for me!”
Until HOYO came along, Annette lived with her parents in the house she grew up in—just a few doors down from the one she now calls home. While she dreamed of having her own place, most of the salary from her job with the airport police department went toward daily living expenses, as well as medical and other disability-related expenses. There wasn’t enough left over to save for a down payment, much less to allow Annette to qualify for a conventional mortgage loan or pay for modifications to accommodate her wheelchair.
Through HOYO, Annette received down payment assistance and qualified for a Fannie Mae HomeChoiceSM mortgage loan. HOYO also helped her get funds to make the dwelling completely wheelchair accessible.
Annette says the house she shares with two cats and poodle (and, of course, the bears) may be small, but it makes a big difference in her life. “I love coming home to my own house—my own space,” she says. “It’s just wonderful, and it wouldn’t have happened without HOYO.”
The Same--
But
Different
When their landlord announced he was selling the house they had rented for six years, Angel and Aida Fleites dreaded the thought of yet another move. They were comfortable and happy here. Nonetheless, the landlord’s suggestion that they buy the house seemed too far-fetched, financially.
Angel was declared permanently disabled shortly after he was injured on a construction job 12 years ago. Aida recently retired after 25 years teaching first-graders in a public school bilingual program. Living on his disability benefits and her retirement pay, the couple was hard-pressed to save enough for a down payment or qualify for a traditional mortgage loan. They were grudgingly gearing up to find another place when their banker told them about the Houston Home of Your Own (HOYO) program.
In homebuyer education class, required of all HOYO participants, Angel and Aida learned what it would take for them to become homeowners, including how to clean up their credit. Down payment assistance, through a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas and the City of Houston and a specialized, low-interest mortgage loan made it possible for the Fleites to take up the landlord’s offer to sell the home to them. HOYO also helped the couple get funds to modify the bathroom to accommodate Angel’s mobility difficulties and make it safer for him. Aida and Angel agree that—even though it’s the same house—it feels different now that they own it. They’re more relaxed, they say, without the nagging uncertainty they felt as tenants.
Peace & Privacy
Several tall stalks of bamboo sprout from a beautiful vase on the mantel in the home Pau (Kim) Lim shares with her mother, Hoeung Cao. Representing good luck, the plant serves as an airy focal point in a tranquil living room that represents quite a change for the two. Until recently, they lived with Kim’s brother and sister-in-law—and their four children. It was an arrangement Kim describes, simply, as “crowded.”
The mother and daughter learned about the Houston Home of Your Own program through Housing Opportunities of Houston, a local HOYO coalition partner. Both women have vision impairments. Their individual disability benefits are their only source of income. With HOYO’s help, Kim and her mother qualified for a low-interest mortgage loan by combining their benefits income. Through HOYO, they also received down payment assistance and funds to make necessary repairs to their new home.
Kim says HOYO was very helpful in guiding her and her mom through every step of the home buying process. Being a homeowner, she says, is a lot of responsibility. But it has a big reward—peace and privacy.
El Paso Success Stories (Espanol) |
