RISMEDIA, April 24, 2008-Freddie Mac announced $10.5 million in grants to housing counseling organizations to use for their outreach, education and foreclosure prevention efforts to help borrowers. Freddie Mac is one of the nation’s largest investors in residential mortgages.
The grants will enable the non-profit organizations to add and train staff, pay operational expenses and support outreach campaigns to borrowers having difficulty making their mortgage payments, especially subprime borrowers. The organizations were selected for their abilities to educate and advise borrowers about their foreclosure options and/or help them obtain workouts from their mortgage servicers.
The largest share of the funds will be administered through the HOPE NOW Alliance in grants totaling more than $6 million. Of that amount, approximately two-thirds is allocated for HOPE NOW’s counseling, operations and outreach, with the remaining funds earmarked for organizations including Enterprise Community Partners, NeighborWorks America, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and HomeFree USA.
“Although the challenges facing today’s housing market go beyond any one company’s ability to resolve, Freddie Mac is working with the non-profit organizations who are in the trenches to make a real difference for many of America’s borrowers. By putting another piece of that plan into place, today’s announcement underscores how Freddie Mac’s mission to expand homeownership includes helping delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure whenever possible,” said Richard F. Syron, CEO and Chairman of Freddie Mac.
The $10.5 million in funding disbursements is the result of the November settlement between OFHEO and former Freddie Mac CEO Leland Brendsel.
Recipients and the amount of their grants are:
— HOPE NOW Alliance, $6.385 million
— Center for Responsible Lending, $1 million
— Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, $500,000
— Don’t Borrow Trouble, $500,000
— National Council of La Raza, $300,000
— National Fair Housing Alliance, $300,000
— National Urban League, $300,000
— Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Atlanta, $200,000
— Consumer Credit Counseling Services of San Francisco, $200,000
— ACORN, $200,000
— National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, $150,000
— One Economy, $125,000
— League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), $100,000
— National Community Reinvestment Coalition, $100,000
— Centro de Gestion Unica para Vivienda Propia, $100,000
— Mortgage Credit Center, $40,000
The announcement builds on Freddie Mac’s efforts to help distressed borrowers by fostering mortgage workouts that enable them to avoid foreclosure. Last year, because of Freddie Mac and the mortgage servicers it works with, almost 50,000 families that had run into financial trouble were able to keep their homes. Freddie Mac currently is working out roughly 1,000 loans per week – where 90% of the affected families keep their homes.
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.
For more information, visit: http://www.FreddieMac.com.
