Miami Chamber, United Way team with Realtors, lenders to offer home ownership program

MIAMI — The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with United Way of Miami-Dade and with the collaboration of the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches and participating lenders, has launched an Achieving Homeownership Initiative.

The initiative is a worksite-based campaign designed to promote and boost homeownership opportunities by offering a broad-based introduction to homeownership.

“This initiative is the committee’s first step in creating a program that will provide our membership with the tools to assist their employees in achieving homeownership,” said Michael Burnstine, chairman of the Chamber’s Workforce Housing Committee. “By working with United Way of Miami-Dade and participating lenders and Realtors, we hope to make homeownership for our work force more accessible.

Research shows that obtaining funds for down payment and closing costs, and understanding the home-buying process remain the primary hurdles for many families who want to buy a home. The initiative will aid firms in developing programs to help employees realize their dreams of homeownership.

Employers can provide a variety of benefit options from access to home-buying workshops to loans or grants that help fund down payments, closing costs or interest rate buy-downs. These benefits serve as tools that employers can use to attract and retain qualified employees, revitalize neighborhoods and reduce employee commutes.

The first phase of the initiative concentrates on home-buying education. Companies host either a condensed one-hour or an in-depth two-hour workshop at their work place.

The workshops will give participants an understanding of the factors that should be considered when preparing for homeownership, know how to obtain a credit report and correct the errors within it, and learn how to access additional information needed to buy a home.

“Homeownership is key to enhancing the community and improving economic independence and to that end we encourage organizations to offer their employees these seminars on achieving homeownership,” said Harve A. Mogul, president and CEO of the United Way of Miami-Dade.