By BRENDEN SAGER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/25/05

Karen Martin seems like an unlikely homeowner. Even she admits that.

The school bus driver grew up in Marietta public housing projects and raised three children there. When the projects were torn down in 2001, she moved into a rent-subsidized apartment.

“I thought owning my own home was out of the question,” she said.

But Martin, 46, is the Marietta Housing Authority’s first homeowner. She has moved into her own two-bedroom, one-bathroom condominium on a corner lot in the Pleasant Note subdivision.

“People look at me now, they think I’m rich,” she said proudly.

Martin is taking advantage of a little-known federal housing program in which her rent subsidy goes toward house payments rather than to a landlord.

Against the backdrop of the nation’s ragged public housing projects, the goal of the program is to support homeownership and build family wealth, explained Marietta Housing Authority Executive Director Ray Buday. If the program is successful, residents such as Martin can build equity, sell their homes and buy another house, but without a government loan.

“I’m always glad to see people moving out of public and assisted housing,” Buday said. “I hope she will be the first of many.”

The Marietta Housing Authority has been in business since 1938 and is Cobb County’s largest public housing agency. Officials hope to have as many as 10 homeowners per year under the new program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Public housing agencies across the country offer similar programs. The Atlanta Housing Authority, for example, has about 40 homeowners, said Karin Moore, who administers the program for the Marietta Housing Authority.

Moore picked Martin for the new MHA program because she had a steady job at Marietta City Schools and had regularly paid her bills.

Martin said she was shocked to be the authority’s first-round draft choice.

“The anxious part was that I was saying to myself, ‘Can you really do this?’ They were asking me to do something that hadn’t ever been done before,” Martin said. “How do you do that?”

For the most part, her house note is like many others. She first had to budget and then prove she had good credit to qualify for a loan. She spent months looking for a house and had one deal fall through. Then she found an $85,000 condo just west of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

She received a $25,000 loan toward her down payment through Cobb Housing Inc., a local nonprofit group that promotes homeownership. The public housing money that used to go to her landlord now goes toward repaying the down payment. Martin pays her remaining $60,000 mortgage through Wachovia Bank.

Marietta Housing Authority officials helped Martin understand the process. She was required to take classes on budgeting and credit.

The MHA also provides inspectors to check properties before purchase. Martin’s first deal fell through because the home she wanted to buy didn’t pass the MHA inspection.

Moore said the process can take between six and 18 months to qualify for a loan. The residents must work at least one year before entering the program and have a minimum annual income of $14,000.

“We’re really here to make sure they have a very good chance of being able to get the loan,” Moore said.

Martin, whose children are grown and lives alone, said the process was overwhelming. Going into debt to purchase a home seemed risky, she said, but she tries not to think about how much money she owes the bank. “I don’t look at the big number. I just look at next month’s payment.”

If the home appreciates in value, Martin is free to sell, provided she pays off all her existing obligations.

The Housing Authority operates 572 housing units, down from a peak of 1,500. Through its 67-year history, officials estimate, about 100,000 residents have passed through its doors.

Martin said that being the first homeowner from MHA has boosted her self-image and her social standing among friends and family. “They think I got money now,” she said. “It all goes back to budgeting. Knowing how to budget — I’m an expert at that.”