Roundtree's affordable housing workshop set for May 4

Former Hendersonville City Council member Debbie Roundtree has seen how many of her neighbors are struggling to find affordable housing, especially when it comes to home ownership. Not only does she hear their frustrations, she shares them.

“We have been in a housing crisis ever since before Covid,” Roundtree said, adding that the situation was worsened by the pandemic, as some people lost their jobs and homes.

Her passion for helping with housing is personal, however. Roundtree “has had the privilege of walking and talking the struggle with people.” She’s currently living with her mother after a car accident kept her from working for two years.

“I just couldn’t rebound,” she said.

Roundtree found the NACA program as she and her fiance began thinking about buying a home, and attended a workshop in Columbia, South Carolina in October. Her experience with the program has been so positive that she’s hosting a workshop in Hendersonville from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 4 at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 900 Blythe St.

More: Hendersonville City Council member Roundtree announces resignation

NACA is a HUD-approved counseling organization that offers a comprehensive, supportive home-purchasing program. NACA bills itself as “a solution to address the major barriers in the housing market to affordable home ownership.”

The organization provides financial and housing counseling that lead to mortgages for those who qualify. Over the past 30 years, the organization says it has had more than 75,000 closed mortgages and a foreclosure rate of 0.00012, “with over 90% of the homeowners being people of color. NACA is the go-to organization for affordable homeownership particularly for people of color.”

Roundtree’s goal is to help people obtain and maintain their housing. She’s worked with Habitat for Humanity and Housing Assistance Corp. to help people secure housing and make repairs to their homes.

“Affordable housing is near and dear to my heart,” she said, adding that although she recently stepped down from council, she still has a platform, anchored in part by affordable housing, and hopes to serve the public in a different role in the future.

“I was in the same situation that people who come to me for help are in,” she said. “I know what these people are experiencing and have been experiencing for some time.”

Coming out of the pandemic, people may have jobs but struggle with bad credit or down payments. It’s a hardship Roundtree can understand. She likes the NACA program because it helps potential homebuyers get on track by determining what they can afford and what obstacles they need to overcome, then helping to craft a plan for home ownership.

Participants work with a counselor and a realtor to create their path to home ownership, which can include working on their credit or saving for a down payment. Credit is the biggest obstacle Roundtree has seen when it comes to home ownership. Coupled with low wages and high home prices, people “simply can’t afford what is going on here,” she said.

NACA’s approach to dismantling those barriers caught her attention. During her workshop in October, she said about 95 percent of attendees stood when asked who had problems with their credit. Some people struggling with credit are low-income residents, she said, while others are high earners.

“It’s affecting all of us,” she said.

So far, about a hundred people have signed up for the workshop in Hendersonville, Roundtree said April 28. Many are single-parent families making just above the poverty rate.

“Nobody can bounce back,” she said. “I want to bring a tool that can help everyone. It works. NACA works, because it’s working for me. We truly need something. We have a long way to go, but it’s a start.”

For more information or to sign up for the workshop, call Roundtree at 828-290-6580. For more information about NACA, visit www.naca.com.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Affordable housing workshop set for May 4 in Hendersonville