Fontana Can Help City Employees buy a Home (Daily Bulletin 070606)

This is a good plan and it is a shame that this report is only showing the success of one Idevidual that has taken advantage of the program. Rialto City had it for a while, but the plan ended some years ago and they have never started it back up for what ever reason. I know that If they had the program when I was looking for my home I would have used the plan.

BSRanch

Fontana can help city employees buy a home

By Leonor Vivanco, Staff Writer

FONTANA -- Over his 18-year career as a city employee, Keith Kramer commuted from various cities where he lived to his job in Fontana. But in January, he became the first and only person to take advantage of the Fontana Employee/Teacher Homeownership Program.

"It made perfect sense for me to relocate into the community where I serve not only as an employee but as a resident," said Kramer, an operations and construction supervisor in the public works department.

He got a $50,000 loan to help buy his $450,000 home downtown in a city where home prices are climbing.

The program is being offered to full-time city employees and teachers in the Fontana Unified, Colton Joint Unified and Etiwanda school districts who never owned a home in Fontana. To qualify for the loan -- which serves as a second loan to buy a home -- employees must be able to afford a 3 percent down payment and must qualify for a first home loan, said Deputy City Manager David Edgar.

After living at the home for five years, the loan can start to be forgiven if the homeowner shows he or she has made improvements to the property, he said. It can be completely forgiven by the 10th year, he said.

"It makes good sense for employees to live in the community because they become members of the community and are more in tune with what's going on in the community," Edgar said.

Kramer said that since he is not commuting as much, he has time to run errands and attend community events.

"The commute was secondary. My biggest focus was really to be a part of Fontana," he said.

The recently approved 2006-07 budget included $500,000 in redevelopment funds for the program's first full year. The goal is to assist at least 10 employees, regardless of income, in purchasing a home in the core area bounded by Foothill and Valley boulevards and the city's limits on the east and west.

The median home price in the area with a 92335 zip code was $375,000 in May, which is a 17.8 percent increase in price from May 2005, according to DataQuick. Home prices in other areas are even higher.

"For several years, we've heard that new teachers and employees are unable to afford housing in Fontana," said Mayor Mark Nuaimi.

The program is a way to help employees buy a home, aid in recruitment efforts and add to the resurgence of the neighborhood, he said.

"Anytime you live and work in the same community or within a short distance, that enhances the quality of life," Nuaimi said.

Other downtown projects aimed at revitalization include the regional library under construction and the renovation of the historic Fontana theater.

A handful of people have already submitted applications for the program, which was created in 2005, Edgar said.