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Coalition plans multilingual fair for homebuyers

Northwest Life: Sunday, August 10, 2003

By Elizabeth Rhodes
Seattle Times staff reporter

Thanks to the efforts of a unique local coalition, prospective homebuyers who speak any of 11 languages can get free information in their native language at the annual New Americans Fair Housing and Homebuyer Fair.

The only multilingual event of its kind in the region, it's scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Tukwila Community Center, 12424 42nd Ave. S. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free food, door prizes, kids' activities and child care will be available.

The languages span the globe from Asia to the Americas and Africa. They are Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Somali, Afan Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya and English.

"We're thrilled to be able to expand this year to reach the East African and Korean communities, in addition to the Pan Asian and Hispanic/Latino populations," says Amy Duggan, executive director of the nonprofit Community Home Ownership Center (CHOC). "Our materials will be translated and classes interpreted in 11 languages."

CHOC is a member of the New Americans Homebuyer Partnership, which Duggan notes is the only Washington coalition bringing newcomer communities together to provide language and cultural access to home ownership and "fair housing" resources. "Fair housing" refers to the laws that make it illegal to discriminate based on race, national origin, religion and other factors.

Duggan says there will be a new emphasis on fair housing at this year's fair. "Workshops will address fair housing, and exhibitors will have fair housing information at their tables," she explains.

Other partnership members are the International District Housing Alliance and El Centro de la Raza. The Horn of Africa Service and Korean Women's Association also are taking part.

The fair will feature more than 40 exhibitors. Among them will be mortgage lenders, real-estate agents, home inspectors and home-insurance companies. Those who attend the fair have no obligation to do business with any of the exhibitors.

Nonprofit and government agencies will offer information about the types of help available to first-time homebuyers and others.

This fair comes just as the National Housing Conference releases a study showing that immigrant families need help with housing issues. According to the Washington, D.C., organization, immigrant working families are six times more likely than native-born Americans to live in crowded conditions.

Additionally, these families are almost 70 percent more likely than native-born Americans to spend more than half their income on housing.

"As the fastest growing segment of America's workforce, immigrants are of increasing economic importance to their communities, but affordable housing concerns and crowding data revealed in this study make it clear that today's immigrants are facing more than the traditional challenges of their predecessors," says G. Allan Kingston, NHC chairman.

Sponsors for the New Americans Fair include the Fannie Mae Foundation, United Way of King County, U.S. Bank and Washington Mutual Bank.