In her 15 years with the Columbus Housing Authority, including the past three as executive director, Debra Taylor has seen people from all backgrounds come to her in desperate need of housing.
“There are all kinds of reasons people come to us,” Taylor told the Columbus Exchange Club Thursday at Lion Hills Center. “Imagine if you are like some of the people in Houston or Florida and have gone through a natural disaster and find that your homeowner’s insurance won’t cover the cost to replace you home? Or what if you’re the victim of the recent Equifax breach and someone has committed all kinds of crimes in your name? What if you have a family member has suffered a catastrophic injury and you have to quit work to be their caregiver?
“These are the kinds of stories we hear at the Columbus Housing Authority.”
Taylor said the CHA operates 480 federally subsidized low-income apartments throughout the city. But there are 340 names on its waiting list. The regional housing authority, which provides income-based housing outside the city, has a five-year backlog. And with the federal funds declining, the need for housing is critical, she said.
Toward that end, CHA is partnering with BancorpSouth for its first Columbus-Lowndes Housing America Initiative. The event will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Trotter Convention Center.
The goal is to help people qualify for home-ownership.
“The idea is to put together a program where all the resources one needs to get ready for home ownership are in one place,” said David Vega, assistant vice president at BancorpSouth in Columbus. “For a lot of people, the idea of home ownership can be overwhelming. They don’t know about credit and how it affects their ability to get a mortgage loan. They don’t know that there are programs to help them with down payment assistance. There are a lot of options out there and unfortunately, so many people don’t know about them. Home ownerships seems impossible to them, but really, for many of them, it’s something they can achieve if they have the tools and the help and counseling they need.”
Taylor said the event will include presentations and information tables for a wide range of topics associated with home ownership.
“We’ll have lenders, Realtors, credit counselors and organizations like Habitat for Humanity who have experience with helping people toward home ownership.” Taylor said. “We really have high hopes for this and hope the word spreads.
“When people come to us for housing and we don’t have anything available, this is something we can point them to,” she added. “A lot of these people can be homeowners. They just don’t know how. That’s the whole goal of this event.”
The Columbus event is one of hundreds of events held in October to raise national awareness of the need for safe, affordable and quality housing.
Vega said BancorpSouth considers programs such as the Housing America Initiative in a way for the bank to serve the community.
“We are partners with the housing authority because we have seen the work they do and we feel like this is something that allows us to give resources back to the community by working the housing authority on this event,” Vega said. “A lot of people in low-income housing are regular, hard-working people who want to do well. There’s such a stigma attached to low-income housing, so if we can help provide resources that turns the rent they are paying into an investment in a home, that’s something that helps the community.”
For more information on the event, contact Taylor at 328-4236 or visit the Housing America website at http://www.housingamericacampaign.org.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
