At a community meeting held recently at City Hall in Citrus Heights, the Nehemiah Corporation of California announced its decision to purchase 80 homes in the Summerhill subdivision in Citrus Heights, currently owned by Japanese businessman Gensiro Kawamoto.

The informational meeting was held to share new developments with local residents and introduce Nehemiah Corporation and its programs to tenants who had been evicted from homes in the subdivision.

"Our goal is to aid tenants whose lives are in turmoil as a result of Mr. Kawamoto's mass eviction notice," said Don Harris, founder of Nehemiah and chairman of the board.

"While we applaud Mr. Kawamoto's recent decision to provide his tenants an additional 90 days to find alternate housing, the Summerhill families need more help than that. We are committed to honoring the community by providing assistance to these families in the purchase of new homes, whether it be in the area affected by this recent crisis or elsewhere," Harris added.

The Nehemiah Community Honor Program's offer to purchase the Summerhill subdivision will aid the 80 families that would otherwise be forcibly evicted from their rental homes in the Sacramento suburbs of Citrus Height, Orangevale, Antelope and Rocklin.

Approximately 45 of the Summerhill tenants have initiated the prequalification process in the hopes of purchasing their homes.

Nehemiah intends to structure a home purchase plan to allow tenants to complete transactions at no additional cost.

The Nehemiah Community Honor Program, for example, will provide a minimum one-year lease to the current tenant of each purchased home.

Nehemiah will then work with the tenants during the lease term to assist them in the purchase of their own home, the purchase of another home, or to help find replacement rental housing.
In order to purchase the large number of homes in the impacted area, Nehemiah must obtain a waiver from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Currently HUD has regulations relative to the number of homes a single entity can own in a specific geographic area. The waiver will allow The Nehemiah Community Honor Program to purchase an entire subdivision from Kawamoto.

Currently, Nehemiah works closely with HUD on a variety of programs including the Nehemiah Program ó the largest privately funded down payment assistance program in the nation.

Through the down payment assistance program more than 100,000 families have purchased their homes utilizing more than $324 million in down payment gift funds.