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Florence Hagins, 67; activist for low-income home buyers

Florence Hagins helped thousands of Massachusetts residents to become homeowners.Janet Knott/Globe Staff/File 2005/Boston Globe

Even though Florence Hagins had a sound credit history and a steady job as an office manager in a hospital surgical ward, she was turned down when she asked a bank for a mortgage on a two-family house in Dorchester's Jones Hill section.

Then, at a community meeting she heard about SoftSecond, a new mortgage program that emerged in response to a 1989 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study, which showed banks were withholding loans to prospective homeowners in some city neighborhoods based on race.

An African-American, Ms. Hagins became the first home-buyer in Boston to purchase a house through the program, run by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance.

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"I became the poster child for the SoftSecond mortgage," she told the Globe in 2005, recalling that moment when she became the owner of a house with a well-tended lawn and a generous backyard.

Ms. Hagins, who went on to work for the housing alliance, through which she helped thousands of state residents become homeowners, died March 21 of complications from a stroke in her Jacksonville, Fla., home. She was 67.

After buying her house, Ms. Hagins volunteered at the housing alliance evenings and weekends for five years until Tom Callahan, the organization's executive director, persuaded her to take a full-time position by telling her: "Florence, you can see this is where your passion lies."

She relished her role with the housing alliance, where she was an assistant director when she retired in 2005. When people she counseled secured homes of their own, "it was like me buying a house all over again," she told the Globe that year. "I can't tell you how good it makes me feel when people get their first homes."

A single mother, Ms. Hagins knew the challenges many first-time home buyers faced, and she negotiated with bank presidents and politicians to make homeownership a reality for low- and moderate-income residents across the state. "We couldn't have scripted a better person," Callahan said.

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"It was our good fortune that our first buyer was someone who was so dynamic," he added. "She was a real and significant inspiration for what we do."

Callahan also credited Ms. Hagins with helping raise funds that helped the Dorchester-based nonprofit acquire more space. "She always said that lower- and moderate-income home buyers deserve to be educated in a place that's appropriate, not a dingy church basement," he said of housing alliance's current 10,000-square-foot office.

A daughter of Hazel and Carlton McCarthy, Florence McCarthy Hagins grew up in the Whittier public housing development in Roxbury and graduated from Jamaica Plain High School.

At the housing alliance, her presence and own story offered an inspiring lesson. When Callahan first invited Ms. Hagins to speak to a class of prospective home buyers, "she was just a natural," he said.

She began teaching homeowner classes and offering advice about home inspections and budgeting. Ms. Hagins would recount how before buying her house, she visited the park across the street at 2 a.m. so she "could see the neighborhood at all hours," said Callahan, who recalled that she "always told people, 'Don't just settle for seeing the house when the real estate broker brings you there.' "

Although she was an enthusiastic advocate for homeownership, Ms. Hagins advised people to be cautious and realistic. "Buying a house is like falling in love," she told the Globe in 1998. "Your heart starts pounding and your mind shuts down." She told people she counseled that courses offered by the housing alliances are important. "If this is your first time through the program," she said, "you need the education."

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Esther Maycock-Thorne, president of the housing alliance board, said she would not have been able to buy her Brockton home without the assistance of Ms. Hagins. "When she realized I was missing a critical piece of paperwork, she got right on it," Maycock-Thorne said. "She knew all the right questions, and she had all the answers."

Maycock-Thorne, who said purchasing a house gave her the security to put herself and her two children through college, described Ms. Hagins as a "woman filled with relaxed intensity."

"She was respected by every single person who met her," Maycock-Thorne said. "She was soft when needed, she was firm when needed, and she was willing to help anyone, always."

Cortina Vann, a housing alliance community organizer, recalled how Ms. Hagins would get workshop participants to role-play different aspects of the home-purchase process. "She had such a kindness about her, and such a strong voice," Vann said. "She was a real champion for working-class families."

Over the years, Ms. Hagins led community meetings, testified before Congress, and became well known as an advocate for affordable housing in Boston. After retiring, she moved to Florida to care for an elderly aunt.

Her daughter, Andraea Hagins Green, who was 5 when her parents separated, said her mother "knew she had to be both the man and the woman for our family. She was the breadwinner, so she made things happen."

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Green, who now owns a Jacksonville hair salon, described her mother as "a Bostonian, born and raised, who really cared about the community."

Ms. Hagins, Green added, "had the common sense to know that owning a home is a good way to build wealth."

Green said her mother enjoyed traveling and collecting African-American art, but her home was always her greatest passion and she was meticulous about home maintenance. "She would hire an electrician, she would hire a plumber," Green said, "and then she would tell them exactly what she wanted them to do."

A service will be announced for Ms. Hagins, who in addition to her daughter leaves two sisters, Gladys McKamey Mungo of Willingboro, N.J., and Luanne McCarthy Martel of Dorchester; and two brothers, Carlton McCarthy of Jacksonville and Milton McCarthy of Dorchester.

Maycock-Thorne, who also is a single mother, said Ms. Hagins was her role model.

"She was the first, she led the charge," said Maycock-Thorne, who added that "because of her, I was able to put my kids in a home where they felt safe. Nobody could take that away from them."

According to the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, the program that began with Ms. Hagins getting a first mortgage has now assisted more than 18,000 low- and moderate-income home buyers across the state.

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"That's a big number," Maycock-Thorne said, but it doesn't indicate the actual influence of Ms. Hagins. "It's really just a pebble in a sea of change."


Kathleen McKenna can be reached at kmck66@verizon.net.