WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today announced that Ohio will receive $148,728,864 in funding for foreclosure-prevention assistance from the Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets ("Hardest Hit Fund") and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Emergency Homeowners Loan Program. The program, which uses leftover funds from the TARP program passed in 2008, will provide additional assistance to 17 states - including Ohio.

"This is a victory for Ohio communities," Brown said. "Ohio's cities have been on the frontline of the foreclosure crisis for over a decade and should have all the resources necessary to rebuild our communities. Too many Ohioans are trying to modify their mortgages so they can hold onto their homes, but getting nothing but the run around from their lenders. Too many communities are seeing vacant and abandoned properties that lower surrounding property values and compromise both safety and economic development. These homeowners and communities deserve more assistance than they have been receiving from the HAMP program, and today the federal government is giving it to them."

HFAs gathered public input and designed programs to meet the specific challenges facing struggling homeowners in their states.

Ohio will use the funding to assist homeowners through targeted programs, which will:

  • help unemployed borrowers pay their mortgage for up to 12 months while they search for a new job
  • provide assistance to bring delinquent mortgage payments current for borrowers who experience hardships due to a reduction or loss of income or other unforeseen circumstances
  • create a mortgage modification program to incentivize lenders to reduce homeowner's mortgage principal value to 115 percent or less of the loan-to-value
  • provide an incentive payment to the servicer as well as relocation aid to the borrower and payments in exchange for the release of second liens, in order to facilitate short sales

As a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Sen. Brown is working to improve the federal loan modification program so that more Ohioans can lower their monthly mortgage payments and stay in their homes. In February, Brown wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to suggest improvements to the HAMP program so that more Ohio families avoid foreclosure. The HAMP program was designed to encourage banks to modify mortgages to prevent foreclosures. Ohio continues to rank forty-eighth among the fifty states and the District of Columbia in the number of homeowners who have been able to modify their mortgages for lower payments through Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Only 14.8 percent of seriously delinquent loans have been modified through HAMP in Ohio, and only 8 percent of trial modifications have been converted into permanent modifications. Brown also urged more federal funding for foreclosure prevention counseling programs.

Brown is a leading proponent of providing assistance to communities affected by the housing crisis and population loss. He fought for the creation of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the continuation of the program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. In Sep. 2008, Brown announced that Ohio communities would receive more than $258 million in NSP funds authorized by the housing bill. In Sep. 2009, Brown wrote to Secretary Donovan in support of Ohio applicants to the second wave of funding through the NSP program.

Sen. Brown also introduced the Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act of 2009 with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Brian Higgins (D-NY). This legislation would create a new, competitive grant program within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) targeted toward cities and metropolitan areas experiencing large-scale property vacancy and abandonment due to long-term employment and population losses.

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