If you are thinking of waiting until homes are dirt cheap to buy, you might want to learn about the process, so as not to get screwed on subprime mortgages and loans like many currently losing their homes were. On Saturday September 6th (10am-2pm) there will be a free workshop at the Hartford Public Library (downtown) put together by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), an activist organization that has gathered some interesting mixed reviews. NACA helps potential buyers go through the process, in exchange for the promise of engaging in five kinds of activities each year to support the goals of NACA (fighting predatory lending).
The organization has received a lot of positive press, especially lately with the scandalous housing crisis. Most of the critiques of NACA say the same thing—the process is too long. In our culture we expect instant gratification for everything. Maybe the process is too drawn out though. It’s hard to know, as most comments I’ve read on this are vague. What would be the “normal” length of time, versus that the clients had to endure? On one hand, I am apt to believe that there is a ton of process to go through, and on the other, I feel like saying to the complainers “Isn’t it a speedy, ask-no-questions process that helped get America into this subprime mess to begin with?”
The other complaints that I have read are regarding how clients are treated as if they are beggars and how banks only work with NACA because of bullying. I know that activists are often perceived as bullies because those whose power is being challenged simply don’t like that; however, this could be a legitimate complaint. After all, there’s at least one “community” group that operates around here that is self-serving, appropriates causes with no understanding of the neighborhood, and does more harm than good. Because it’s a national group with local chapters, it comes in with goals for an area which might not be what the residents want help with. And they don’t work well with others. Perhaps NACA does not operate like that, but maybe larger groups feel more entitled to elbow their way around. Then there’s Michelle Malkin’s column on NACA, which I won’t even link to because every semester I tutor students who are assigned to read tripe she wrote about Tupac Shakur, and well, she’s a reactionary whose opinion–to paraphrase the Bard–signifies nothing.
I will be attending the workshop on September 6th, and depending on my impression, might continue to work with them, or I might go a different route. At minimum, I’ll have learned something more about a process that I do not care to rush.
