FEATURED MEMBER: Seema Agnani

Seema Agnani was a founder of Chhaya CDC, established seven years ago to meet the growing and urgent housing needs of South Asian immigrants in New York City. She is now the Executive Director overseeing New York City’s only organization dedicated to meeting the community development needs of South Asians. Chhaya conducts education, outreach, organizing, research, and one on one services to tenants, buyers, owners as well as those most in need, such as victims of domestic violence. Seema Agnani speaking at the 2008 National CAPACD Conference The South Asian community is one of New York City’s newest immigrant groups and also one of its fastest growing ethnic populations. Contrary to popular perception, the South Asian community is not uniformly affluent, and approximately 30% of Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants live below the poverty line. Additionally, while there is a strong propensity toward homeownership, many South Asians, along with other recent immigrants, do not know how to navigate the mortgage market or they lack the required credit histories to qualify for prime mortgages.  Chhaya’s survey of South Asian homeowners found that predatory practices were prevalent in the community such as negative amortizations and also that real estate agents were negotiating deals with landlords to sell houses at higher than actual values to earn higher commissions — trapping borrowers with higher payments and no way out. Unfortunately, there are no local or national financial literacy programs that target South Asians in their diverse languages or with an understanding of the barriers that they face when trying to purchase a home. As a result, their homeownership rate lags far behind the city average, and when they do buy homes, they are at high risk for predatory lending. Many South Asians seeking to achieve the “American Dream” are forced to work long hours to make ends meet and live in overcrowded and poor housing conditions.  For these reasons, Chhaya created their Homeownership and Predatory lending education program in 2002-2003. They offer free, multilingual first time homeownership workshops and individual counseling to help clients through the confusing maze of purchasing a home, and workshops on tenant rights, housing discrimination, and forms of public housing assistance available to the community. Chhaya also provides clients with key information on how to understand and improve personal credit, how to choose the right mortgage product, where to go for assistance, and what to look for while applying for a mortgage. When landlords are unresponsive to repair requests or attempt to evict tenants unlawfully, Chhaya provides mediation assistance with the appropriate city housing authority.  To find out more about the great work of Seema Agnani and Chhaya CDC, please go to their website at http://www.chhayacdc.org.