DETROIT WOW WINS PROGRAM OF THE YEAR AWARD

To honor the efforts of our local WOW groups, the CBCF developed a WOW program of the year award. This award recognizes the outstanding and unique programmatic innovations of a particular WOW group. This year’s winner was the Detroit WOW program.

Congressional representatives John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick introduced the WOW program in 2003 to metro Detroit industry professionals from all sectors of the community. The Detroit WOW Taskforce, chaired by Louise G. Guyton, Vice President of Comerica Bank and Byna Elliott, Vice President of Fifth Third Bank, joined other bankers, real estate professionals, mortgage lenders, community based-organizations and other stakeholders to strategize a plan to create 500 new homeowners by the end of December 2005. The collaborative partners met to identify local housing needs, barriers to homeownership, and implement a strategy that would meet the CBCF goals. A few of the Detroit WOW success stories:

* The Taskforce raised over $300,000 and leveraged an additional $100,000 for the counseling agency directly.

* WOW members provided over $150,000 in down payment assistance to the 500-targeted homebuyers. More than 2500 individuals were “touched” by the WOW partner-counseling agency as a direct result of the Detroit WOW Initiative.

* As added value, and through the WOW coalition partnership, the counseling agency was able to provide information to homebuyers about affordable housing available in the Metro Detroit region.

* The Taskforce hosted a summit to discuss barriers to homeownership with legislators and policymakers and created a sub-committee to track legislation to support issues that positively impact housing.

* The initiative was so successful that all stakeholders agreed to continue the program beyond 2005.

The Detroit WOW program will be honored at the 2006 ALC Homeownership Breakfast. For more information about the Detroit WOW program or about the Homeownership Breakfast, please contact Gerald Ford at 202-263-2800.