Uncategorized

By Angela Murphy on April 2, 2010

$172 million for Ohio homeowners facing foreclosure
Columbus Board of REALTORS®

On March 29, the Ohio Department of Commerce announced that the state will receive $172 million in federal assistance for Ohio homeowners facing foreclosure. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) will receive the funds and will work with Save the Dream Ohio partners and organizations throughout the state to administer them.

This follows the announcement by the Obama Administration that Ohio is one of five additional states to receive a total of nearly $600 million from the federal government’s Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets. The Administration had previously awarded $1.5 billion to Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada. These new funds will support additional efforts in Ohio, as well as North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

Introduced in 2008, Save the Dream Ohio is a multi-agency program that works with 37 HUD-certified housing counseling agencies as well as legal aid societies and pro-bono associations, all with the goal of helping Ohioans who are facing foreclosure. Since Save the Dream Ohio began, the program has received more than 52,000 calls to the hotline and tens of thousands of Ohioans have received housing counseling and/or legal assistance through Save the Dream Ohio or one of its partners.

In addition to reviewing the guidelines surrounding the distribution of new federal funding, OHFA will administer the funds to help Ohio’s homeowners.

Ohio will receive the third largest allocation of Hardest Hit funds to date as part of the U.S. Treasury’s second round of funding. The first round, announced February 19, 2010, went to states with home price declines of more than 20 percent. The second round of funding, announced March 29, 2010, goes to states with the highest share of their population living in counties in which the unemployment rate exceeded 12 percent in 2009.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency will work with partners throughout the state to create a funding proposal for the Hardest Hit Fund. The U.S. Treasury requires state housing agencies to develop programs that focus on unemployment programs, mortgage modifications, short sale programs, principal reduction programs, and second lean reductions. The Treasury will issue additional proposal guidance within the next two weeks.

Homeowners who need assistance can contact Save the Dream Ohio toll-free at 888-404-4674 or they can visit the website at www.savethedream.ohio.gov.

For more information on the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, visit www.ohiohome.org.