Finding the House Key

For 13 years, Marta and Julian Velazquez hauled their disabled son up and down the 18 stairs that linked their tiny hillside apartment in East Los Angeles to the street below.

Strapped into his wheelchair, Octavio--who suffered a brain injury as a toddler--bounced and swayed as his parents negotiated the stairs twice a day to deliver him to school and appointments.

When night fell, Octavio, now 18, his two sisters, now 16 and 11, and his mother crammed into the unit’s single bedroom to sleep, while his father and younger brother sacked out in the living room.

Marta Velazquez, a 42-year-old homemaker, and Julian Velazquez, 75, a retired furniture maker, can be forgiven, then, for bragging about their recently purchased Boyle Heights home, with its four spacious bedrooms, ample living room and big backyard.

“This is my palace,” Marta said recently, as she laid out food for Octavio’s 18th birthday party. “It took a lot of patience to get this house, but it’s well worth it.”

The Velazquezes were able to buy their $142,000 house thanks to HomeChoice, a nationwide program that offers affordable mortgages to the disabled and their families.

Since its inception four years ago, the program has helped 33 Southern California families purchase homes, with loans totaling about $2 million. Six more loans are in the pipeline.

“This program changes people’s lives,” said David Silva, executive director of Home Ownership Made Easy, or HOME, a nonprofit group that coordinates HomeChoice’s work in California.

“Individuals with disabilities need the opportunity to participate in society, to flourish, and I’ve seen them do that when they own their own homes,” Silva said. Culver City-based HOME, which provides services to the developmentally disabled, heads up a coalition of HomeChoice partners that includes banks, counseling centers, city and county agencies, regional centers and realty companies.

Each coalition member assists HomeChoice borrowers with a different phase of the purchasing process, from helping them qualify for a loan to installing wheelchair ramps on their front porches.

The program, which provides low down payments, flexible second-mortgage financing and step-by-step counseling, was created by Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest provider of mortgage money.

HomeChoice provides home-buying opportunities to people with such disabilities as cerebral palsy, autism and mental retardation or to their families, if their care is administered at home.

There are about 45,000 developmentally disabled adults living independently or in assisted-living arrangements in Southern California, according to HOME’s Silva. Many of the disabled are clients of the county’s seven regional centers, which identify potential HomeChoice borrowers.

Marta Velazquez, who provides around-the-clock care for Octavio, heard about HomeChoice 18 months ago through a friend at her son’s school. She contacted his social worker, who directed her to the Home Loan Counseling Center in Los Angeles, a HomeChoice coalition member.

Bankers, Counselors Explain Their Roles

After passing an initial credit check, Marta Velazquez attended a HomeChoice information session, where she met bankers and counselors who explained their roles in the program.

Next, the Velazquezes and several other potential borrowers attended a five-hour homeownership workshop at the counseling center. Then the couple began one-on-one instruction that addressed their particular needs.

“It takes a lot of patience, and there are lots of families who aren’t ready,” said Gloria Ancira, director of the Home Loan Counseling Center. “It often takes months, but we just keep planting the seeds, fertilizing them and watching them grow.”

Finally, last January, the couple were ready to begin the loan application process, the most time-consuming step for most HomeChoice borrowers.

To qualify for the low monthly mortgage they sought, the Velazquezes had to come up with a $50,000 down payment. They had saved only $6,000 so, like many HomeChoice borrowers, they needed a major financial boost.

With the help of the HomeChoice coalition, they got a $5,000 Affordable Housing Program loan from the Federal Home Loan Bank. The loan is forgivable if the family remains in the house for at least 15 years.

The couple also got a $60,000 loan from the city Housing Department. About $40,000 went toward the down payment. Washington Mutual Bank, a HomeChoice partner, holds the $91,000 first mortgage.

The balance of the loan was used for home repairs, including a fresh coat of paint, new carpets and a special shower adaptation for Octavio. The loan does not have to be repaid until the couple sells the house.

Arreola’s Realty in Los Angeles, a coalition member, helped the Velazquezes find their Boyle Heights house, which they moved into last August, 11 months after the process began. California Children Services of Los Angeles County, another coalition member, donated a wheelchair ramp for the front porch.

“What’s great about this program is that individuals who couldn’t be homeowners before are becoming homeowners now,” said Susan Gray, community reinvestment coordinator for Washington Mutual Bank. Last year the bank made 15 HomeChoice loans in California, worth more than $1 million.

Pomona First Federal Bank and Trust and Cal Fed/First Nationwide Mortgage are also coalition members.

Chas Belknap, director of community development at the Mental Health Assn. of Los Angeles, said that HomeChoice is a less expensive housing alternative for the disabled than government-subsidized rental programs.

Those subsidies can cost more than $72,000 per family over the course of 20 years, while HomeChoice subsidies run closer to $30,000 and often are repaid.

“It’s really the most cost-effective program I know of,” Belknap said. “And it integrates the disabled into the community.”

Diana and Brendan Lipps of Orange dreamed of owning their own home but never expected to get it.

The couple, both of whom have learning disabilities, had lived for 10 years in a small one-bedroom apartment in Orange. They grew tired of the peeling paint and broken bathroom fixtures and longed to decorate their living space to their liking. The Lippses heard about HomeChoice from a Department of Developmental Services case worker. With the help of the Regional Center of Orange County, the couple qualified for the loan that got them into their $129,000 two-bedroom condominium about six months later.

“It took a lot of patience and prayers,” said Diana Lipps, 39. “When we finally got the house, we celebrated.”

‘Happiness . . . Isn’t Measurable in Money’

The couple’s families contributed $20,000 toward their $45,000 down payment, and the Regional Center gave them a forgivable $20,000 loan. They also received a $5,000 Affordable Housing Program loan. Their families say that the new living arrangement has changed their lives.

“They know they’re different, so owning their own home helps put them in the mainstream,” said Michele Brown, Diana Lipps’ sister. “Their happiness as homeowners isn’t measurable in money. It’s a lifestyle they love.”

That lifestyle includes easy access to public transportation, shopping and to Diana Lipps’ job at the Rehabilitation Institute of Orange County.

Brendan Lipps, 48, an aide at a local school for the disabled, enjoys the little patch of green outside his back door. “I like to garden, and I can do that here where it’s peaceful,” he said.

Though many agencies help HomeChoice families secure houses, lining up the financing is the most difficult part of the process, said Mike Danneker, executive director of Westside Regional Center in Culver City.

“Pulling together all the funding requires multiple sources from the city, county and state,” Danneker said. “It’s unbelievably hard to do.”

Theresa Snedden, 52, knows just how hard. The mother of 13, who cares full-time for her 25-year-old autistic daughter Augustine, barely qualified for a mortgage because of her low monthly income and inadequate savings.

By pooling the last month’s rent on her leased house and donations from her family and church, she managed to scrape together $1,000 of the $2,900 closing costs she needed on a three-bedroom Altadena house her HomeChoice Realtor helped her find.

“If it weren’t for [my family and friends], we’d still be living in our run-down rental,” she said of the Pasadena house that was in dire need of plumbing and electrical repairs. “This program is just amazing. It’s changed our lives.”

Besides the church and family donations, Snedden got a $5,000 loan from the Federal Home Loan Bank and a $15,000 loan from the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission. The $23,000 down payment qualified her for a $130,000 mortgage.

Snedden learned about HomeChoice from Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services.

The Easter Seals Society of Southern California provided transportation to counseling classes for Augustine, who is a co-signer on the loans.

Refinancing Packages Are Available Too

A $30,000 loan from Los Angeles County’s Community Development Commission has allowed the Sneddens to begin a major renovation project on the house, including a new roof, bathroom repairs, new carpeting and a three-quarter bath in the basement, where three of her sons have set up a bedroom.

“The boys have assumed much more responsibility, and Augustine has made tremendous gains since we moved in here,” Snedden said. “She’s outgoing, can use the phone, keep a conversation going, she goes to the mall. She used to just stay in her room.”

HomeChoice not only offers affordable mortgages to the disabled; it also provides refinancing packages.

Oxnard resident Bonnie Epstein, 55, recently qualified for refinancing on her four-bedroom, two-bath house after she was found to have fibromyalgia, a chronic illness characterized by muscle and connective tissue pain.

Because of her disability, which prevents her from working, the animation painter and her husband, Harold, 54, a field representative for a laboratory equipment firm, were able to consolidate their two mortgages into one lower monthly payment.

“I rest easier now because we have a very low fixed mortgage rate, and I don’t have to worry about our payments going up,” she said.