Persistence Pays Off
 It’s the same story over and over – a family scrupulously saves every dime looking to buy a house, only to find they’re outbid or shut out.
But that’s not the way things need to be, as the San Diego Union Tribune discovered here at Community HousingWorks. The San Diego Union-Tribune sent a reporter to follow Susan Lucero through the process of buying a house, and found CHW – and our partners JP Morgan Chase and Rebuilding Together – were the keys to her success.
Read Susan’s story for yourself…
CHW’s HomeOwnership Center Offers a Shoulder…and Answers
Times are tough all over, but few stories can match Dorothy Schubert’s.
With just $1,200 in monthly income and trying to control her expenses, Dorothy decided to refinance her home while mortgage rates were at their recent historical low. And not having been blessed with the world’s finest education, she believed her mortgage broker’s instructions and signed where he told her to sign.
By the time she realized the broker was unscrupulous, Dorothy held an adjustable rate mortgage rather than the fixed rate mortgage she had originally requested. The broker - and his commission - were long gone.
As her mortgage adjusted, Dorothy found herself paying $500 more per month than before she’d started the exercise. The few dollars she’d tucked away from a lifetime of hard work went towards two major operations, chemotherapy, and a year’s recuperation. It was only after she lost her job that her son moved in, contributing $500 towards the monthly bills.
Her son died in August, 2008, of cancer. Once again Dorothy found herself behind the proverbial financial eight-ball. “The man on the TV said ‘Don’t modify the loan yourself; get a lawyer,’ says the 76-year old. “So I called the number and hired their lawyer to fix my problems. Only he was a shyster and took my $3,000 without doing anything for me.
“I was getting desperate and started missing payments. I hired another lawyer, and he was supposed to be good, making arrangements with the lenders to modify the loan if I make good faith payments of $1,550 for three straight months. Only I gave this lawyer my last $3,500 and now I’m broke.
“I did all the work, but had to pay the lawyers all that money,” she laments. “The lenders say I didn’t make all my payments so they won’t modify the loan. And I haven’t been able to catch up on the two months I’m behind.”
After all this grief, it was daughter Cindy who provided Dorothy with the best solution. “She finished her drug rehab and really got her life pulled together. She borrowed money from Community HousingWorks to buy a house, and they explained every detail to her of everything that was happening, every step of the way. She now owns her own home, and I’m VERY proud of her!
“Cindy introduced me to some very nice people and they’ve been helping me to get things straightened out. Community HousingWorks has contacted the lenders several times for me, and they’re doing all they can to make everything go smoothly for me. And they’ve even gotten my second mortgage payment lowered by $270,” says Dorothy.
Of course, anyone who knows about CHW’s Foreclosure Intervention Center isn’t surprised by this last turn of events. The Center was set up to provide free mortgage counseling and evaluation, loss mitigation services, and negotiation with lenders. They even provide free notary services for modifications.
“The Home Ownership Center’s programs aim to be there for San Diegans that need a trusted professional to assist them in attaining or sustaining homeownership,” says Gabe del Rio, Senior VP of Community HousingWorks. He adds, “Sometimes we have a client who is unable to keep their home. In circumstances like these, we also provide referrals for a wide array of services including attorneys, credit counseling and, when appropriate, social services.”
“Our Realty Department can even assist with a short sale,” notes Mr. del Rio.
CHW’s Foreclosure Intervention Center works wonders for hundreds of people every year. “In the past 12 months alone we’ve invested thousands of hours counseling almost 2,000 households. And though we have a great number of cases in pending status with the lenders, we have a high rate of success getting loan modifications for our clients. Of those who are successful in attaining a modification, we have a 95% success rate of long-term homeownership.
“Our highly trained staff and the support of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program make it possible to get people the real help they need for no charge at all.”
It’s certainly been that way for Dorothy Schubert. “I’ve been so happy with the way they’ve been helping me,” she says. “And everyone I’ve sent over to them has also been very satisfied. They’re VERY nice people, and they explain to you when you don’t know.”
The professionals at Community HousingWorks are there to provide answers to your questions too. Just call us at 619-282-6647 for more information.
Investing in our neighbors…and our neighborhood.
 What better way to start a new year than in your very first home?
This was how Hamid Dadafshar and his wife, Afsaneh Shamlou, envisioned starting 2010, 2009, and 2008.
In fact, they’d been trying to get into a home of their own since 2006, to no avail. And to be successful, the move came close to taking them away from all their friends in Poway, landing them in Escondido.
“My kids weren’t happy at the idea of us moving to Escondido, and pushed me to check out first homebuyer programs in Poway” says the former Parkview Terrace resident. Unfamiliar with the workings of Poway’s lottery system for residents of affordable housing, Mr.Dadafshar was surprised to learn he had a good lottery number that put him into a prime position to purchase one of the moderately priced homes being built on Metate Lane.
Known as The Meadows, these 33 single-family attached 3 and 4-bedroom homes (1200-1600 sq. ft.) were constructed by the Poway Redevelopment Agency through their Supporting Home Ownership in Poway (SHOP) program. The homes were completed in late fall 2009, and owners began moving in very shortly thereafter.
“We moved to the U.S. so our kids could have a better life. “We didn’t speak English when we arrived, but knew there would be good schools and great opportunities here.”
“Today our kids are speaking English and Spanish, and the youngest will finish high school soon (his three kids are 23, 19 and 16) and be off to college. And while I have my Bachelors in Factory Administration, I’m trying to continue my education at Palomar College for Accounting and Administration.”
“We love this country. It’s a wonderful place. It took us 8 or 9 months go through the system, but we ended up living in a good neighborhood. Now everybody in my family’s happy.”
Helping Others Get a Start
 Margot Blank Doucette knows the importance of giving back to the community. It’s what prompted her to give Community HousingWorks a donation of $500 to get the Youth Leadership Initiative program up and running.
Our latest youth program, the Youth Leadership Initiative, the program Ms. Doucette chose to support, is innovative, interactive and designed to teach our young residents how to become leaders within their community. Through this initiative, young residents in each of our apartment community clusters (Fallbrook, Escondido, Poway, San Diego and Tri-City Carlsbad/Vista/Oceanside) come together to design a community service project in an effort to improve their individual communities. With two training get-togethers, they will envision and implement a project on their own, gaining new friends and leadership skills.
As the great granddaughter of secular eastern European Jews, Ms. Doucette’s family first arrived in America at the turn of the last century with little in their pockets – much like many of the families helped by every CHW program. Like so many of the time, great-grandparents Max and Anna Zelickson and Abraham and Sarah Gold worked hard to become part of the fabric that has always made America strong.
Indeed, for the Golds, fabric was the operative word. Both tailors, Abe and Sarah were firm believers in the rights of the worker and were active participants in the early formation of the garment union. They even met in the judges chambers after being arrested for being on the picket line of a company that was on strike.
“I was raised in a very progressive atmosphere,” Margot recalls now. “In my family you learned that being a responsible American means working hard, playing by the rules, and helping those around you who are in need.”
This sense of social responsibility had been running deep through her family for decades. Robert Zell (né Max Zelickson) spent World War II working in a munitions plant, then graduated to working for a tool & die maker before finally starting his own business selling plumbing supplies. And by this turn of events hangs the tale.
During his travels Robert encountered a man producing flexible plumbing supplies in his basement. Plumbers then typically installed rigid pipes from the wall to sinks and toilets, but this man soldered threaded connectors to the ends of pieces of copper tubing eliminating the need for rigid pipe and saving a lot of installation time.
The man encouraged Robert to begin his own business producing flexible plumbing supplies, which would soon become the industry standard. Brass Craft Manufacturing Company was born to manufacture flexible supplies for water and gas lines, went public, and was sold to Masco Corporation in 1982. The family’s fortunes were secured.
As part of their legacy, the Zells created a permanent fund to benefit both the Detroit and Sarasota-Manatee Jewish Federations. This was complemented by a family foundation which for the past 25 years has been giving to a full range of charities regardless of their religious or political affiliations.
Influenced by an environment in which family was key, the Zells and three successive generations have been both socially and politically conscious. Having survived world wars, economic upheaval, domestic struggle s and social antagonism, they felt they’d finally succeeded. And as they gained good fortune, every branch of the family became increasingly generous, determined to share this fortune with those in their respective communities most in need.
Today the Zell Family Foundation provides a thriving, dynamic opportunity for each of these descendants to explore, discuss, share and give back. The Foundation has focused on a range of issues, including arts programs for at-risk children; environmental concerns; and family empowerment and nurturing. “We’re on the move to assist families,” Margot says of the Zell Family Foundations focus for the coming year. “We’ve all seen the importance of providing strong life skills with the goal of building healthy families.”
“So although we don’t have a huge foundation (the Zell Foundation currently has roughly $1million in assets, and is completely run by family members without professional staff), we DO have the ability to target our funds where they’ll really make a difference.”
Still, the question remains why the Youth Leadership Initiative program was targeted for a donation.
“My husband Dennis and his firm, Luce Forward, were doing some pro-bono legal work for Community HousingWorks and we went to their DreamBuilder event. Dennis was fortunate to have been asked to present an award to a longtime volunteer. I was truly taken by what I experienced there – the great work being done by Sue Reynolds and her team. The more I got to know about the Organization – that night and afterwards – the more I wanted to find a way to be involved.”
“When it was time to designate my discretionary grant, my original thought was to give a donation to the Valor Scholarship, but Sue was excited to share with me a new program to fund, the Youth Leadership Initiative program. I was thrilled about the idea of providing funds for a new project and trusted her recommendation.”
“Most people and foundations don’t want to give to a program that’s either new or untested, fearing their money may go to waste if the program is not successful. I always look at the stability of the organization as a whole, since if you don’t give a new program a chance to succeed, you’ve guaranteed it will fail.”
“Opera star Beverly Sills once said, ‘You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.’ It was that kind of thinking that motivated me to give to the Youth Leadership Initiative program. Here, under one roof, is a combination of in-school and after school programs for children and teens. Once it’s more firmly established this program can only strengthen the families it touches.”
Margot adds, “While our grant is small in size, I see our contribution as a rock in the pond, funding a program that might not have otherwise gotten off the ground. We hope it will have a tremendous impact over time, far exceeding the dollars we’ve invested.
“The way I see it, if we can help springboard a new program and inspire others to help get new programs started for Community HousingWorks, the mission of our family foundation continues to be realized and our family succeeds in helping others in need.”
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