My Nonprofit Reviews

8/15/15
In 2013, I applied and informed that I was eligible for a 30,000.00 grant for a down payment for a foreclosed home through the Long Island Housing Partnership, pending mortgage counseling. My husband and I were very excited since I recently lost my job and he was not working fully. After more than an hour of humiliating mortgage counseling our excitement turned to grief when we were told that we were not approved simply because we had one late payment and because I hadn’t been working at my current job long enough. We were told to come back in 6 months. In 2014 we again endured grueling mortgage counseling with the same mortgage counselor provided by LIHP who again told us we were not approved and told us to come back in 6 months. As time went on I began to question the staff at LIHP, inquiring why we were not approved. We were then told that we had been approved. My husband and I were very confused about this since we were told twice to come back. Although we did receive a letter stating that we were “eligible,” both times it indicated that we would need mortgage counseling. I requested not to have the same mortgage counselor and was informed that the mortgage counseling was not required.
I was upset about the amount of time that was wasted but was motivated to find a new home for our 3 small children since the one we are currently renting recently foreclosed. I was told to once again update my file. I found a foreclosed home and everything looked good, when the LIHP contacted me and told me I am no longer qualified because I make too much. It left our family devastated. We don’t feel that I make too much while recovering from job loss that left our family up to our necks in debt and no savings whatsoever.
The LIHP cheated us out of a 30,000.00 opportunity for my family to own a home. The staff that runs the program was incompetent and unorganized because they did not follow up with my family to see how our search was going. They did not give us the option of applying for a home on our own. They simple lead us to believe that we did not qualify, when that simply was not true. Had we known we qualified for this program we would have found a home two years ago in 2013. I tried to explain this to LIHP however I was just met with coldness and indifference. I feel betrayed and cheated, once again while the privilege continues like nothing happened.