Teachers Are Targets With Housing Plan By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter When the developers of a new home community in Sylmar chose a location near a Metrolink station, they hoped that homebuyers would leave their cars home and help relieve freeway congestion. The gambit worked, and 10 percent of those who bought homes in Montage at Village Green became Metrolink commuters, exceeding Metrolink’s estimates of a 3-percent ridership increase. Now the same developers are turning their collective social conscience to another harsh reality of L.A. life the difficulties of teachers and other public servants have finding affordable homes close to the workplace. In January, American CityVista and Montage Development are expected to announce an alliance with the Los Angeles Unified School District in hopes of tapping into the county’s Los Angeles Teachers Mortgage Assistance Program (LATMAP). The alliance would marry the developers’ vision of building affordable homes in urban infill areas with what are essentially discounted financing terms specifically designed to assist teachers and other LAUSD workers become homeowners. If the alliance comes to pass (discussions are still ongoing), the developers’ project now under construction, Noble Village in North Hills, will be among the first to combine LATMAP lending products with brand new homes. But unlike the efforts to decrease the number of commuters clogging freeways just to get to work, this goal may not be so easily achieved. Despite good intentions, LATMAP is fraught with bureaucracy, misinformation and confusion. Although the program has funded about $175 million in loans since it kicked off in July 2000, the successes are more likely due to the banks and financial institutions that have aggressively pursued the business, rather than the efforts of LATMAP, or even LAUSD, the agency that the financing is designed to assist. “My assistants go to a lot of different schools and pass out fliers,” said Isaac Brooks, a mortgage consultant with Wells Fargo Bank, which offers three different LATMAP programs. “Wells Fargo has a Web site for some programs, but most of my business is referrals (from other borrowers) or from my realtors.” The idea behind LATMAP is simple: Median home prices in Los Angeles County (currently above $288,000) are out of reach of most LAUSD teachers earning an average salary in the $40,000 range. That has made it difficult to attract and retain teachers for the district. “Obviously, we want our employees to be happy, and we think with home ownership they will stay with the district longer,” said Arnie Weiner, specialist for human resources at LAUSD. American CityVista, an organization created by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, approached the school district because the program fit well with the developers’ mission, to develop affordable housing in urban infill areas. Along with Tarzana-based Montage Development, American CityVista is building 35 single-family homes in a North Hills neighborhood that sits within an LAUSD zone. The company is also in negotiations for several additional sites nearby that would bring the total homes in the area close to 100. Most new home developers shy away from government-sponsored financing because of the red tape involved and because they typically have pre-existing partnerships with other financial institutions. But Cisneros created American CityVista with a broader vision encompassing social responsibility and the belief that home ownership is at the center of the American dream. “The home is much more than a financial property,” said Cisneros of his reasons for leaving public life to form the company. “It’s where people raise children, rest and repose, where they keep their personal possessions. There are few things we can do that are more powerful than give people a place to do that.” Locally, American CityVista homes average in the low-$200,000 to mid-$200,000 price range, well under the cost of the average resale, let alone the average new home price, but still beyond a typical teacher’s salary. The loan programs go a long way toward bridging that gap. Primarily through three banks Washington Mutual Inc., Wells Fargo Bank N.A. and Bank of America LATMAP offers borrowers options such as subsidies up to $7,500 toward a down payment or a mortgage; 100-percent financing or a very low down payment requirement; silent seconds, where the mortgage is based on only a portion of the home price and the balance is forgiven after a number of years; and looser criteria in which the borrower only need qualify for a portion of the total mortgage amount. Roy Osorio, who heads up these lending activities for Washington Mutual, estimates that about $100 million in LATMAP loans were made in the past year. Washington Mutual, which Osorio said was the largest LATMAP lender, probably did 20 percent of that business. But Osorio and other bankers say their individual efforts to promote the program, not LATMAP, are the reason why. LAUSD designated the Community Financial Resource Center, a not-for-profit association designed to assist redevelopment efforts in South Los Angeles, to act as liaison between the lending institutions and the school board and, while the two groups have run expos and other informational seminars, a lot of their efforts have come up short. Forescee Hogan-Rowles, who spearheads the effort at the CFRC, offered to provide information on the LATMAP programs available, but did not return a number of phone calls to do so. Staffers at the agency seemed unable to ascertain whether funds had ever come through on a $64 million allocation from the state for one loan program. And the agency’s Web site, designed to help teachers interested in the financing programs listed at least three incorrect telephone numbers and an incorrect Web site address. Those who work with the CFRC point out that the agency has few resources for its LATMAP responsibilities. Hogan-Rowles herself is a candidate running for Mark Ridley-Thomas’s seat on the Los Angeles City Council and likely has other priorities, they say. The banks that actually provide the loans however, have been aggressive about pursuing the business, largely because the business is a profitable one. “It’s volume,” said Osorio. “The average profile is very stable. The income source is stable.”
