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Recipient's Plan to Further Fair Housing <br />For July 18, 2011 -July 18, 2014 <br />Grantee: Cabarrus County <br />Recipient's Address: P. O. Box 707, Concord, <br />NC 28026 <br />Contact Person: Kelly Sifford Contact Phone #:704- 920 -2142 <br />Contact Email :kfsifford @cabarruscounty.us TDD #:704- 920 -3000 <br />L Indicate if the Recipient will be affirmatively furthering fair housing for the <br />first time or has implemented specific activities in the past. <br />First Time Past Activities X <br />H. Identify and analyze obstacles to affirmatively furthering fair housing <br />in recipient's community. (Use additional pages as necessary) <br />Research results purport that the primary barriers to housing choice in Cabarrus County <br />are economic and educational in nature. More specifically, the issues appear to include <br />dealing with the general public's understanding of Fair Housing rights, the home buying <br />process, the number of affordable accessible units available and access to affordable loan <br />packages and loan modifications promoting housing choice. <br />• Current Lending Products and Packages. Recent changes to lending products <br />and packages have created obstacles to homeownership for lower income families. <br />New credit requirements may disqualify many families from homeownership or <br />loans to provide better housing choice. According to local nonprofit agencies, <br />new HUD regulations regarding mortgage insurance are causing monthly <br />mortgage costs to rise. This increase limits low income families from housing <br />choice due to being disqualified for loans that expand their options in the market. <br />• Fair Housing Awareness. Cabarrus County has had no fair housing complaints <br />in the past ten years. This is indicative of one of two potential scenarios. Either <br />there are no violations of housing opportunity in this county or people are <br />unaware of their rights. It is more likely that fair housing violations go unreported <br />due to a lack of understanding or knowledge of the rights of protected persons and <br />families. Awareness in the private sector, as well as with the average individual, <br />is a crucial step in addressing this particular barrier. <br />• Knowledge of the Home buying process and associated costs. Many families <br />or individuals wishing to move into homeownership are not informed about the <br />process of purchasing a home. This lack of knowledge may make them <br />vulnerable to unscrupulous realtors, predatory lenders and poor loans which can <br />1 <br />Attachment number 4 <br />F -2 Page 41 <br />