On March 1st, PCDC Program Manager Ping Ho Lee attended a meeting about building communities through homeownership. At this event, Wells Fargo announced the NeighborhoodLIFT program, which provides homebuyers up to $7500 down payment assistance. With only one month for homebuyers to qualify and apply for down payment assistance, Ping immediately got to work. She created flyers and posters to inform the community about this valuable opportunity and hosted a bilingual workshop on eligibility for the program. Six of eight workshop attendees signed up to attend the NeighborhoodLIFT program registration and launching on April 1st, and four clients have continued with the program.
Since most of PCDC’s clients are limited English proficient, Ping, Program Associate Iris Liang, and Housing Counselor Wendy Lee invested substantial time to assist our clients through the entire process, which continues today. Iris interpreted and helped the clients complete their registration on April 1st. Wendy and Ping helped clients complete their eight-hour homebuyer education sessions with New Kensington CDC or with PCDC using “eHome America” online. Now clients are either house hunting, or applying for their mortgages, as our housing counselor continues to work with them. We expect that they will be successful as we make the homebuying and mortgage process easier to understand.
Overall Wells Fargo has invested more than $300 million in LIFT programs. Here in Philadelphia Wells Fargo invested $5 million to help Philadelphia residents become homeowners. This program was launched on Friday April 1st and Saturday April 2nd with the assistance of NKCDC and NeighborWorks America.
PCDC staff attends workshops and trainings to educate and deliver programs and services to our community.