Down Payment Assistance Charity Challenges HUD Rule

"We will fight to continue to help low and moderate income families

achieve the American Dream of home ownership"

    GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AmeriDream, Inc.,
 a 501(c)(3) charitable entity dedicated to helping low and moderate income
 families purchase their own homes, announced today that it has filed suit
 to block a regulation issued by the Department of Housing and Urban
 Development (HUD) which seeks to terminate successful down payment
 assistance (DPA) programs sponsored by AmeriDream and other charities.
 Those programs provide cash gifts to aspiring homeowners who are able to
 make monthly payments on the mortgages on modestly priced homes, but cannot
 come up with the down payments required to qualify for loans guaranteed by
 the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
 
     "HUD's action makes no sense," said Ann Ashburn, president of
 AmeriDream. "DPA programs work, and work well, having provided critical
 assistance to over one million individuals and families in the past few
 years to buy their own homes, some 80% of whom for the first time, facts
 which HUD does not dispute. By challenging HUD in court, we will fight to
 continue to help low and moderate income families achieve the American
 Dream of home ownership."
 
     Current law requires homebuyers seeking FHA loans to make at least a 3%
 down payment on their homes, but permits them to receive some or all of
 that amount as gifts from charities. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a number
 of 501(c)(3) organizations initiated down payment assistance programs to
 enable low and moderate income families to purchase their own homes, with
 faith-based organizations first taking the lead. From those modest
 beginnings, DPA programs grew rapidly, helping hundreds of thousands of
 families. Though HUD is actively seeking statutory authority to offer FHA
 loans equal to 100% of a home's purchase price by having buyers assume more
 debt in lieu of a down payment, HUD has moved to prevent charities from
 giving low income families the down payment outright.
 
     HUD's proposed rule was criticized sharply by members of Congress in a
 June 22, 2007 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services
 Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on DPA programs. HUD's
 action also reverses its previous position regarding the provision of down
 payment assistance, and reneges on its written commitment to provide six
 months notice before changing that position.
 
     "We are all for making sure that our down payment assistance programs
 work precisely the way they should, and help the people they are supposed
 to help," said Ashburn, "and we have pleaded to work with HUD to achieve
 that goal. But they have repeatedly refused to meet with us and other
 charities, and ignored our written submissions. Instead, they have sought
 to shut down charities which are providing crucial help to many minority,
 first time, low-income or single-parent home buyers. It's just crazy."
 
     A copy of Complaint is available at:
 www.ameridream.org/about/hudruleinfo
 
     About AmeriDream
     AmeriDream, Inc. is a 501(c)(3), publicly supported non-profit
 organization founded in 1999. AmeriDream is one of the first nonprofit
 organizations to pioneer providing down payment assistance to
 low-and-moderate income individuals and families to help them become
 homeowners. AmeriDream also provides free homebuyer education and loss
 mitigation programs that help families keep their homes and prevent
 foreclosure. These programs have helped thousands of individuals and
 families become successful homeowners. To learn more about AmeriDream,
 please go to www.ameridream.org.
 
 
 
 
 
 

SOURCE AmeriDream, Inc.