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Recommendation to request City Manager to evaluate the feasibility of providing increased pathways to homeownership to low and moderate-income individuals by implementing the following:
· Work with partners such as the Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County and the Affordable Housing Clearinghouse to establish a HUD Certified Homebuyer Counseling Center in Long Beach;
· Explore the rise of non-bank lenders in Long Beach by establishing a dialogue with the top seven non-bank lenders in Long Beach to develop a path to a community benefits participation plan;
· Retool the City's soft second mortgage programs by leveraging and partnering with private sector institutions;
· Evaluate the feasibility of alternative forms of homeownership supply such as community land trusts, and other cooperative homeownership models.
DISCUSSION
On December 11, 2017, as a part of the 'Everyone In' economic inclusion initiative, Vice Mayor Richardson, in partnership with Los Angeles Local Initiative Support Corporation (LA L1SC), convened a roundtable discussion with a multidisciplinary think tank of experts around the issue of homeownership in Long Beach. Homeownership remains one of the best ways to build intergenerational wealth and close the racial wealth gap. When people own their homes, they tend to be more financially stable, their children perform better in school, and their communities are healthier. Historically, families of color and low-income families have been systemically locked out of the opportunities homeownership provides.
Recently, The Greenlining Institute and the National Reinvestment Coalition analyzed federal home mortgage data for 2015, examining lending patterns in Long Beach, and found some surprising trends.
The Problem
According to The Greenlining Institute's study of Long Beach's home lending practices, researchers found a persistent exclusion of low to moderate income families and people of color from Long Beach's housing marke...
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