| Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc. “The Greater Norwalk Area’s Community Action Agency” Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc. (NEON a private non-profit organization, is the community action agency serving the greater Norwalk Area including New Canaan, Westport, Weston, Wilton and Darien. |
| Individual Development Account (IDA) Program |
Welcome to the NEON's Individual Development Account Program.
For additional information, contact Janet Williams at 203-852-4366
Individual Development Accounts are savings accounts that can be
used only for purchasing a first home, capitalizing a small business,
or for educational or job training expenses. Accounts are held at
local financial institutions. Contributions by lower income
participants are matched using both private and public sources. All
participants receive economic literacy training that includes
workshops for cleaning up one's credit, setting up a budgeting and
savings schedule, and other basics of money management.
The program is designed to help our clients work to develop
financial independence.
NEON is pleased to announce that it has three new IDA programs
available. It's a great way to save for a down payment of a home,
start a small business or higher education.
These IDA programs have limited space and the assets and
matching funds may vary for each program.
2002 AFI IDA - Ends 2007
2003 CT IDA - Ends 2008. Besides the other asset listed
above, money can also be used towards Car and rental security.
2004 CT IDA - Ends 2009 Applications are now being accepted.
If you are interested in any of the above IDA programs, please
contact call or
email.
CBS News talks about IDA's
New Ways To Save For A House
FITCHBURG, Mass., June 23, 2006 (CBS)
Just under 70 percent of American families own their homes. But it
can be awfully tough for many working Americans who live
paycheck-to-paycheck to save enough for that all-important down
payment.
That's where a network of local programs comes in — to help
people learn how to save and give them a boost toward their goal.
Thirty-two-year-old Maria Cruz is raising four boys on her own.
There's Evan. The inquisitive one — he's Darius. Marquis likes to
show off. And Andrew, well, he's a teenager now.
For the past year — for the first time ever — they've had a home of
their own, reports CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras.
"I can't believe it," says Cruz. "This is me. I own this. I keep saying
that
to myself all the time."
Maria is a medical assistant who earns $25,000 a year — not
enough to buy a
house. That changed when she spotted a savings and education
program for
low-income working families called "Individual Development
Accounts" at her
local community center. It was a way to start saving.
"My goal every month was at least $100," she says.
For every dollar Maria managed to put away, her local IDA program
— one of
almost 500 across the country — provided $3 in matching funds
from federal,
state and private sources.
"I saved $1,333 and IDA matched me four grand," Cruz says.
In some states, IDAs are even more generous — up to eight times a
participant's savings. The trick is learning how to save. That know-
how comes
from eight weeks of mandatory financial education classes. The
incentives:
cash for a college education, starting a small business or, as in
Maria's
case, a down payment on a first home.
"The more I saved, the more I was gonna better myself," Cruz says.
"In my
heart, I was choosing a home."
The philosophy, originally developed by a professor at Washington
University, is that the best way to get ahead is to save money and
acquire assets. IDAs are a first for the country's poor — incentives
similar to the tax breaks or mortgage deductions that middle- and
upper-class Americans have benefited from for years.
"We've seen, historically, in this country, that you build wealth by
building assets. It's a new way to approach poverty," said Andrea
Levere. She runs the Corporation for Enterprise Development, which
coordinates the IDA programs and is pushing new legislation that
would boost the current 50,000 IDAs to almost 900,000.
Levere contends that skeptics who say IDAs are kind of a welfare
program.
"The way we like to say it is that this is a hand up, not a handout.
Without his or her initiative, it wouldn't work at all," she says.
It has helped Cruz leave public housing ... and given her more than a
house.
"If they see this coming from me, they're gonna do better
themselves," she says.
That's the kind of pride and purpose she is now passing on to her
children.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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| Testimomies from Successful IDA Clients |
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