Tubbs Jones Applauds Inclusion of Housing Counseling Dollars in Transportation, HUD Conference Report

Press Release

Tubbs Jones Applauds Inclusion of Housing Counseling Dollars in Transportation, HUD Conference Report
Legislation Will Provide Funding to Areas with Highest Foreclosure Rates

Washington, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones applauded the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Conference Committee on their decision to include $200 million in funding through the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation to address the foreclosure crisis in their agreement. These funds will be distributed through a competitive process to areas and states with high rates of defaults and foreclosures.

"We are facing a national housing crisis," said Rep. Tubbs Jones. "The nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending projects that as this year ends, 2.5 million households in the subprime market will either have lost their homes to foreclosure or hold subprime mortgages that will fail over the next several years. These foreclosures will cost homeowners as much as $164 billion, primarily in lost home equity.

"In Ohio, and particularly in my congressional district, the problem has gone from bad to worse with nearly 42 percent of loans generated in the past year being subprime and an estimated one in six subprime loans in the district will ultimately ending in foreclosure. These subprime foreclosures will result in price declines for more than 198,000 surrounding homes, with homeowners in the district losing about $249 million in equity.

"These counseling intermediaries provided through this program will be crucial in assisting thousands of borrowers in Ohio and across this country with mortgage modification and restructuring in order to preserve their homes."

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