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The Finer Points of Faith-Based
Assistance David Broder Washington Post Writers
Group It started here back in 1994, as a way to help families living near an inner-city church achieve home ownership. But now the Nehemiah Corp. - named for an Old Testament figure charged by God with rebuilding Jerusalem - has turned into one of the nation's largest and most successful housing nonprofits. Founder Don Harris, a lawyer who also serves as assistant pastor at the Antioch Progressive Baptist Church, took me on a tour of some of its local projects and recited the extraordinary accomplishments of this enterprise. Nehemiah has provided more than $304 million in gifts for down payments on homes for more than 87,000 families in 5,257 cities across the country. The value of the real estate purchases it has helped finance tops $9 billion. And as I saw with my own eyes, it has worked miracles by fostering the pride of ownership in neighborhoods where landlords had neglected maintenance or simply shuttered their properties. Back in 1994, Harris told me, he knew many families who were paying relatively high rents for poor homes. "They were making enough to afford the monthly payments on a house, but neither they nor their parents had enough savings to make the 3 percent down payment required for an FHA loan," he said. As a real estate lawyer, he was approached by the owner of a nearly bankrupt 120-unit townhouse complex who was frustrated because so many of his prospective purchasers were caught in that down- payment bind. His appeal for help sent Harris searching through the FHA and IRS regulations, where he discovered that nonprofit organizations, as well as family members, could donate down payments to otherwise qualified purchasers. The simple scheme: Nehemiah would be formed to advance the down payment as a gift and then collect the same sum, plus an $800 fee, from the seller. Result: An ever-expanding pool of money to turn renters into home owners. "It is a win-win deal," Harris said. "The seller greatly expands his market, accelerates the pace of sales, and can deduct what he pays us as a cost of marketing the property. The buyer gets a gift that enables him to move into a $60,000 house with as little as $600 down. The community gains a growing number of home owners, and we have seen dramatic changes in those neighborhoods -- with yards cleaned up, graffiti removed, and crime reduced." As lenders, home builders and Realtors in scores of other communities have recognized the potential of this program, the Nehemiah Corp. itself has grown to the point that it has 60 employees and $150 million in annual revenues. Scott Syphax, recruited recently as president of Nehemiah, told me that he took a 50 percent cut in pay from his salary as an Eli Lilly executive, because "I believe we have such an opportunity to change the character of blighted neighborhoods and address the historical disparity in wealth that has plagued the African-American community in particular." As a nonprofit corporation, Nehemiah is plowing its newfound prosperity into additional community development projects. With the U.S. Conference of Mayors, it has launched a pilot program to create an Urban Land Trust that will buy up property in gentrifying neighborhoods so that social service agencies such as shelters for battered women or the mentally ill are not forced out of communities by rising rents. President Bush would love Nehemiah and its leaders, because they are fulfilling his dream of expanded home ownership and doing it without a nickel of government funds. The corporation is faithful to its religious roots, and has lent money for a new home for Antioch Progressive Baptist -- a facility that will house not only a church but a public charter school, a computer lab for adult education, a senior citizen center and other social services. But when I asked Harris about Bush's faith-based initiative, he was skeptical. "I worry about the Pontius Pilate problem," he said. "I think that a lot of well-meaning, unsophisticated church organizations will be tempted by the offer of government money to open up their own social service programs. And they will soon find that federal, state and local governments impose complex regulations, and they won't have the staff or expertise to comply. And I'm afraid that when they say to the White House, `We're just doing what we thought you wanted us to do,' the White House will wash its hands of them." Harris' point is a serious one. Nehemiah has achieved its extraordinary success because its leaders know the rules. As he said, "How many other churches have an assistant pastor who is also a real estate lawyer?" |
