East Point holds employee homeownership workshop; city program offers $5,000 down-payment aid

City of East Point employees attended a homeownership workshop where city staff and outside lenders outlined the costs of buying and selling homes, available down-payment assistance and counseling services.

Alyssa Wilkins of the Office of Equity, Inclusion and Empowerment opened the event and described an employee down-payment assistance (DPA) program administered through the city’s Business/Industrial Development Authority. Wilkins said the program provides $5,000 per household for purchases that must be located in East Point and that roughly $40,000 in program funds remained; she said a lien is typically placed on assisted properties for about three years.

“...it does have to be in Eastpointe,” Wilkins said during the presentation; organizers provided flyers and a contact (Regina Carter) for employees interested in applying. (Transcript used the form “Eastpointe”; the city name is presented in this article as City of East Point, the jurisdiction referenced by presenters.)

Irvin Hawkins of Delta Community Credit Union led a wide-ranging session on the economics of homebuying and…