BlueHub completely supports regulations that align with the intent and spirit of the law, and we look forward to the opportunity to provide comments to the Attorney General’s office. Given the direction of the real estate market where more and more homes are being bought up by investors for rentals, it’s important that BlueHub SUN can continue helping homeowners facing foreclosure stay in their homes and build generational wealth. The legislature understood the value of regaining and retaining homeownership when it passed this law last session, and the fact that we need workable regulations to help families avoid the devastating impacts of foreclosure and eviction.
About BlueHub Capital
BlueHub Capital is a Roxbury-based nonprofit with a four-decade record of helping make neighborhoods healthier and more resilient by financing the construction of affordable housing, health centers, and other community assets; by boosting climate resiliency efforts; and by preventing foreclosures and evictions. BlueHub operates in 42 states and Washington, DC. BlueHub has invested over $3 billion in projects from Boston to Los Angeles and leveraged over $16 billion in public and private investment.
In Roxbury alone, BlueHub has lent more than $150 million to build thousands of units of affordable housing, millions of square feet of community facilities (for projects such as childcare facilities, and a community health center) and commercial real estate (including an enterprise that prepares formerly incarcerated people for employment) and more. By partnering with the community for almost 40 years, BlueHub has been a key participant in Nubian Square’s neighborhood revitalization.
About BlueHub SUN
BlueHub SUN, an affiliate of BlueHub Capital, refinances or buys homes in foreclosure and sells them back to their original homeowners with mortgages they can afford. This initiative was created to fill a dire need caused by the foreclosure crisis: the fact that homeowners in foreclosure have a near impossible time getting a new mortgage because they are seen as risky borrowers by traditional lenders. BlueHub SUN offers this service to eligible homeowners, despite the financial risk, because it is a mission-based lender. BlueHub SUN clients are significantly better off through their participation in the program.
At a time when affordable housing is scarce, homeownership retention should be paramount. In Massachusetts alone, BlueHub SUN has provided 558 loans to families across the state, enabling them to stay in their homes, with a concentration of borrowers in Boston, Brockton, Lynn and Springfield. On average, Massachusetts SUN homeowners save $734 per month on their mortgage payment (about 30%) and their mortgage principals are reduced by an average of $91,000, or 31%. More than 400 families—42% of SUN clients—have successfully exited the program with an average of $150,000 in home equity. Almost all of those 400 families had zero or negative equity in their homes when they entered the SUN program.
Overall, BlueHub SUN has put more than $67 million in home equity back into homeowners' pockets, $45 million in Massachusetts alone. That personal wealth would have otherwise been lost to foreclosure and/or eviction.