Freddie Mac To Donate $1 Million To Support Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Freddie Mac is helping ease the burden for families impacted by Hurricane Sandy by donating $1 million to nonprofits supporting relief efforts, including the American Red Cross. 

"We are helping families get the services they need and rebuild their lives in the wake of this disaster," said Freddie Mac Vice President Wendell Chambliss. 

The American Red Cross is receiving $250,000 of these funds to support disaster relief efforts.  Up to $750,000 is also going to local nonprofits in the disaster area to provide a variety of services such as housing assistance.   

Recipients include:

• Faith Fellowship Community Development Corporation to set up a New Jersey meal facility that also provides packaged meals to people who can't access the facility, and will help residents apply for public assistance; 
• Make the Road New York to deliver food to affected families in Staten Island and Long Island, New York, and to assist families with federal assistance applications in English and Spanish;
• Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush to distribute cleaning kits to residents in Brooklyn, New York, an area which had extensive flooding;
• Asian Americans for Equality Community Development Fund to purchase basic supplies such as generators and flashlights to help low-income tenants and homeowners in Queens and Brooklyn, New York; and
• Long Island Housing Partnership to help low- and moderate-income residents find temporary housing or remain in their homes with services such as repairing hot water heaters and getting electricity restored.

In addition to these donations, Freddie Mac has extended its full menu of disaster relief options to help affected borrowers in jurisdictions declared Major Disaster Areas and where federal Individual Assistance programs are available.  Freddie Mac's disaster relief policies provide mortgage servicers a number of ways to give homeowners relief — helping borrowers protect their credit ratings and financial interests in their homes.  Freddie Mac allows servicers to reduce or suspend mortgage payments on Freddie Mac-owned mortgages for up to 12 months for borrowers affected by disasters.  Freddie Mac has also directed its servicers to expedite the release of insurance proceeds and has placed a 90-day suspension on all eviction closings and foreclosure sales for those impacted by the storm, in presidentially declared disaster areas where individual assistance was granted.

Freddie Mac employees are supporting relief efforts by making donations to aid organizations through the Freddie Mac Foundation's matching gifts program.  The Foundation matches employee charitable contributions dollar for dollar; contributions to housing-related organizations are matched 2-to-1.  Employees are also taking part in a company drive for blankets and non-perishable food to help supply shelters and service organizations in the disaster region.  Freddie Mac is coordinating delivery of these donations with the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department and the New York City Rescue Mission. 

"As a company, we have a shared responsibility to provide relief to American homeowners who have been devastated by Sandy," said Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac senior vice president for Corporate Communications and External Relations. "Beyond that, we want to provide our employees, who have asked how they can help, an opportunity to lend a hand to those in greater need."

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Today Freddie Mac is making home possible for one in four homebuyers and is one of the largest sources of financing for multifamily housing.
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SOURCE Freddie Mac