Q&A
HPD's efforts to increase access to homeownership through down payment assistance
1:22:16
·
112 sec
Kim Darga, Deputy Commissioner of HPD, explains the department's efforts to increase access to homeownership, focusing on their down payment assistance program and advocacy for more flexible loan authorities.
- HPD increased the limit for down payment assistance to give New Yorkers more choice in where they can buy
- The department is advocating for changes in state law to allow more flexible loan authorities
- Darga discusses limitations of federal programs and how city resources could potentially eliminate price caps
Kim Darga
1:22:16
the my recollection and I don't have the plan here today or full summary so we can follow-up if we've missed something.
1:22:23
But the big emphasis.
1:22:27
One of the big pieces of what we emphasized in where we live was access.
1:22:35
And one of the reasons that we increased the limit for down payment assistance was actually to give New Yorkers more choice about where they could buy in New York City.
1:22:46
And that is also one of the reasons why, as Ahmed mentioned a few minutes ago, we advocated for changes under state law to have more flexible loan authorities so we could not just rely on federal resources for down payment assistance.
1:23:05
I'm just gonna give you a few examples.
1:23:07
There's a price cap.
1:23:08
So under federal and they're the home program.
1:23:15
Homeowners there's limits.
1:23:17
Right?
1:23:18
You can up to 20% of the purchase price is one of the limits.
1:23:23
And even with that limit, how does imposed a maximum price that someone can purchase?
1:23:31
A New York City that covers a chunk of neighborhoods, but certainly not all of New York City.
1:23:37
So one of the things that we've been thinking about if we were going to expand the program losing city resources is to eliminate those price caps.
1:23:47
What we've seen is that the result is that people tend to buy smaller units.
1:23:53
So one of the big things that we've been pushing is down payment assistance.
1:23:59
I don't think that fully addresses your question around the share, right, and that you are in a community that is I think it's at 9 PM.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:24:08
I'm sorry.
