NYC NOW - February 7, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Is NJ Transit ready for next year’s FIFA Men's World Cup soccer games? Plus, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with Bruce Marks, the CEO of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation, and Newark Deputy Mayor Allison Ladd about what the road to owning property will look like for a select handful of Newark residents.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey will host eight FIFA Men's World Cup soccer games in 26. But is New Jersey Transit ready? Jamila Walker is from Bloomfield. She's taken crowded trains to Beyonce concerts at MetLife in recent years and has no hope NJ Transit will be able to handle the. the crush of fans.

Definitely not. The traffic and just like how many trains they can get in that of Meadowlands, it's going to be crazy. The news of the World Cup coming to MetLife comes less than a month after NJ Transit announced a 15% fare hike. They say it's necessary to help fill a budget deficit of nearly $1 billion. NJ Transit also says they have more than two years to prepare and are building a new terminal at the Meadowlands that will be finished before the World Cup. In other New Jersey news, a new program in Newark aims to make some long-time residents, first-time property owners, for the cost of $1.

More on that after the break. In Newark, New Jersey, only a quarter of residents own the home they live in, and more than half of those homeowners are seriously burdened by the costs of home ownership. But a new initiative in Newark hopes to alleviate at least some of those costs by selling homes. to longtime residents for just $1. Bruce Marks is the CEO of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which is helping Newark administer the program. Deputy Mayor Allison Ladd oversees economic and housing development. The two talked with WMYC's Michael Hill about what the road to owning property

will look like for a select handful of Newark residents. Deputy Mayor Ladd, let's start with you. Would you explain to us how this effort will work from beginning to end? Mayor Baraka has been laser focused on home ownership, but also housing that's affordable to residents here in the city of Newark. One of the initiatives is this dollar home program, whereby the city is offering up previous own city-owned land for a dollar, and then partnering with a key national nonprofit NACA and our land bank administrator invests Newark to provide these properties, renovate them, and get them into the hands. of first-time homebuyers, especially residents who've lived here for the last five years. We're really excited about this initiative.

Alison, if you would tell us a little bit about some of the first set of future homeowners. So the first set of homeowners, you know, they range from people who work in City Hall, who have been waiting to get a home of their own to a mom and her son who were excited to have their first opportunity to own their own home for their future and future generations. and others that were present last week. And we were just really excited about the diversity and opportunity that we had with our homeowners. So it really was a collaboration and a team effort from everybody. How many were selected in the first round here?

And how many properties? I'm curious, city properties are available overall? So this first set was seven. And seven was a number that we wanted to start with. But we know that there are many more people who need. to be able to have access to this program. So we want to get to about 100 properties. That's our real goal.

But it'll take us a little time to get there. For you, Bruce, your Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America had to pre-approve these folks before their $1 chance at home ownership. What does NACA look for when it pre-approves people? And how is that different from what a traditional money lender would do?

We have the best mortgage in America. Actually, it's the best mortgage in America. So anybody that's going through, we'll get the NAC of mortgage, which is no down payment, no closing costs, no fees, no mortgage insurance, always at a below market fixed rate, and we never consider one's credit score. So it's character-based lending because those three numbers on your credit score do not define working people in this country. So we look at the payments that someone controls.

So they were all NACA qualified. And when they're NACA qualified, then they're going to get through the mortgage process. How does NACA guide program participants through the potentially economic hardships they may face throughout this process? For example, what happens if someone falls behind on repaying loans to rehabilitate the property? So, you know, we're there with the post-purchase assistance, but we've done over 75,000 mortgages. We have a foreclosure rate of 0.0012, about 100th of 1%. Wow. And in June, what we did with Mayor Baraka, we have a foreclosure rate of $0.0012, we have a foreclosure rate of

had in Achieve the Dream event for five days at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark. We had over 25,000 people come, 25,000 people, Michael. And everybody came through word of mouth. You know, people telling their friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, for affordable homeownership, you come to NACA to get NACA's best in American mortgage. And we will counsel them. So we're the largest HUD-certified counseling agency in the country. We do 30% of the country's counseling. Director, Ladd, tell me a little bit about the properties that are being sold as part of the program. I understand the city sees them at some point. Why was it? Oh, yes. Sometimes the city has to take on properties because of either foreclosure or, you know, the homeowner isn't able to pay the

taxes. You know, sometimes it's just tough times for various people. And so the city, then takes control of the property. And our whole goal is to get them right back into productive use. We want to get them into the hands of not only new homeowners, but also we have a wonderful array of local developers here in Newark who also focus on community development. And it's critically important for us to advance the equity, not only for our residents who want to be a homeowner, but also for our development partners who might be starting their own business and want to get into development. So the city sees his property, for instance, say, for non-payment of taxes or water bills, if that's the case. Could the city not have helped those families keep their homes

in the first place? For example, does taking these homes from their original owners not cause more housing instability? Fair question. You know, there is a long process, an appropriate process, for any government entity to be able to take property from private owner, including homeowners. And so every homeowner gets the ability to pay off the outstanding taxes and remedy the situation so they can stay in their home. And the city does everything we can to ensure that we're not taking property unless there's no other action available to us. And so it's really the last chance that we can have. But our other hope is is that perhaps something may have gone to the left for some families, but we really could have others become homeowners. And Bruce, what's the expected extent of these renovations and how steep of a price tag are each of these homeowners potentially facing?

The cost of the renovation is going for $200,000 to sometimes over $500,000. But most of them are multifamily. So you're going to have owner occupants, and then you're going to have renters there with affordable rents. Also, people with a Section 8 housing choice voucher can use that voucher. instead of paying it to the landlord, they can use it for their mortgage payment, and they can afford these homes as well. So these are major, major developments. Some of these, you know, are gut rehabs. But then you're using local contractors, so you're also creating job opportunities, good, well-paying jobs for people in the neighborhoods.

That's Bruce Marks, CEO of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, and Newark Deputy Mayor Alison Lad, talking with WNYC's Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jenei Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.