U.S. Senate Slams the Door on Aspiring Homeowners
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Ann Ashburn, President of AmeriDream, Inc., today issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate passed a housing stimulus package that eliminates charitable downpayment assistance funded in part by home sellers. Those programs, operated by charitable organizations in accordance with current law and HUD guidelines, have helped more than one million low and moderate income families and individuals buy their own homes since 2000.
“Sadly, the U.S. Senate has slammed the door on more than 100,000 families and individuals - especially women and minorities - who use downpayment assistance annually to build wealth, grow equity, and achieve homeownership. The Senate cast aside facts demonstrating the downpayment assistance program’s value in favor of a flawed, HUD-backed plan that will worsen home inventories, slow down home sales, increase the risk of foreclosures and further de-stabilize the housing market.
“America’s working families deserve better. They deserve the bipartisan plan passed by the House of Representatives in May that preserves downpayment assistance. The House plan, which AmeriDream supports, protects the FHA’s solvency and tightens standards for downpayment assistance providers. It enjoys the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Mortgage Brokers Association, the National Association of Homebuilders, the National Association of Counties, and the National Urban League.
“We call on conferees from the House and the Senate to regulate - not eliminate - downpayment assistance in their final negotiations.”
Background: Charitable downpayment assistance funded in part with seller participation has allowed homeownership to grow without using taxpayer dollars. To date, more than one million families and individuals have utilized this downpayment assistance, generating nearly $10 billion in home equity for those families between 2000 and 2005. AmeriDream has provided more than 200,000 gifts to aspiring homeowners, approximately 80% of whom were first-time homebuyers. AmeriDream also has helped educate 60,000 homebuyers through homebuyer education courses, helped 1,200 homeowners retain their homes when confronted with mortgage difficulties, and committed over $30 million to affordable housing development in local communities.
Source: AmeriDream
