Jim Vazquez, Administrator
1075 Mullins Station Rd.
Memphis, TN 38134
(901) 379-7100
jim.vazquez@shelbycountytn.gov
Nine children--one of them physically handicapped--and their hard-working mother and father moved out of a two-bedroom apartment and bought a wheelchair-accessible, four-bedroom home in the L. E. Brown neighborhood of Memphis. On the day they moved in, the children ran excitedly, shouting approval of their new home with its high ceilings and large living room. Their move was made possible through a program of the Shelby County Housing Department.
The working single mother of three mentally retarded children moved into a home of her own through a similar program. An elderly woman who lived in a ramshackle trailer in the Berryhill-Pisgah section of the county moved into a renovated home financed by federal grant money obtained and administered by the Shelby County housing program.
Shelby County ranks as one of the top 10 local governments in the country in housing investments, seeking to provide affordable housing to families unable to purchase houses through conventional programs. Since 1989, the department has added more than 125 houses per year of new or rehabbed affordable housing to the community.
Through the work of the Housing Department, the county seeks to turn vacant or abandoned land into places families can live and grow in. To accomplish this goal, the Housing Department has added The Homestead and Homebuyers Revolving Loan Fund (HRLF) programs to make quality housing affordable to home buyers. In many cases, owning a home is equal to or less than the amount the average qualifying family pays in monthly rent.
These new homeowners are part of the working poor-those who have jobs but little hope that they'll ever have enough money to afford decent housing. These programs administered and supervised by the county housing department provide low interest loans, help with down payments and limit the cost of homes to one-fourth the income of the new homeowner. Much of the renovation and construction work is done on property that is owned by the county government through foreclosures. For example, in the L.E. Brown neighborhood vacant tax lien properties sell for $50 per lot to developers. The developer builds a home or duplex for a low income family, the HRLF secures a home mortgage of three to eight percent and pays up to $1,000 of the down payment. Such financial assistance puts new homes within reach of the working poor-and makes vacant county land productive again in the growing of healthy families.
