Posted 12:28 am Thursday, September 29, 2011
Loan Helps Disabled East Texas Man Buy New Home
By MELISSA CROWE
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
CANTON -- After nine months of bouncing in and out motels and sleeping in his car, Robert Maxey at last can call himself a homeowner.
Thanks to a rural development self-help loan backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maxey moved into a new single-wide mobile home last week. Members of the federal and state department, Oak Creek Homes, a representative from Jeb Hensarling's office, the Van Zandt County district and county judge as well as Maxey's dialysis nurse welcomed him into his new home Wednesday afternoon.
"This relieves a lot of stress," Maxey, 44, said. "The night I moved in here, I laid on the floor and took a big, deep breath. It'd been nine months."
Before the welcome ceremony, Maxey received his routine dialysis treatments. It has become a regular part of his life since he started them nine years ago. Although he was visibly exhausted from the treatment, he smiled and laughed, finally home.
Although his new abode is relatively bare, he said he has what he needs to survive: a couch and loveseat, his TV and the prescriptions that keep him alive.
Because of a family situation, he was living with an aunt in his grandparents' brick home on the property. After his aunt died, his relatives sold the home in January, leaving him on the streets, he said.
Jerry Wilson, an area specialist based in Canton with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has seen Maxey's case through until the end.
She called it "a blessing" and said that seeing him in his new home motivates her to help more people.
Maxey said he walked into the USDA office in Canton "just to see what it was about."
"He came in and said, 'I have no place to say, I need a house,' and I said, 'Man, you hit the jackpot,'" Ms. Wilson said.
Maxey was approved for a 33-year, $70,000 loan with a fixed interest of 4.5 percent. Because it is subsidized, he pays about 1 percent interest and there is no penalty for paying the home off early, she said.
In the past fiscal year, her six-county coverage area has helped 84 people receive the Section 502 direct loan that helped Maxey. The program pays a subsidy on house payments.
The process typically takes 75 days to complete, she said.
She said she feels positive about Maxey's loan.
"He has a willingness and ability," she said, regardless of his credit score. "Whatever happened before was out of his control."
Maxey picked out his new home after struggling with the decision of whether to buy new or used. He said he wanted "a comfortable space" and a spare room "to put somebody up when I get down."
He suffered a heart attack in July, which he partly attributes to incredible amounts of stress.
While he still feels the effects of his heart attack, he said his new home is helping to relieve the pressure.
"I still have a long road to hold," he said.
According to the USDA's website, Section 502 loans primarily are used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas. Funds can be used to build, repair, renovate or relocate a home, or to purchase and prepare sites, including providing water and sewage facilities.
Applicants for direct loans from Rural Development Housing & Community Facilities Programs must have very low or low incomes that do not exceed 80 percent of the area median income.
Funds may be used to acquire, build, rehabilitate, or refinance a debt for applicants in danger of losing their property due to circumstances beyond their control, according to the website.
David Fortriede, assistant general manager of Oak Creek Homes in Canton, helped organize Maxey's new home and the paperwork to make it happen.
This is the third loan of its kind Oak Creek Homes has been involved in.
"If you have nowhere to go ... when you get up in the morning you have to think about where you're going tomorrow," Fortriede said. "Now you come home to your things. Somebody's not going to tell you that you have to leave."
Fortriede said the loan program, which has been around for more than 20 years, is a valuable program.
"It's one of the things the government is doing that's right," he said. "We need to applaud them for that and encourage them to keep funding it."
