NEW YORK— Tuesday, March 18, 2008—The State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) has received a $747,718 Federal grant to expand foreclosure prevention counseling efforts across New York State. The funds will be used to help 20 counseling organizations provide additional counseling to homeowners in danger of foreclosure.
In addition, SONYMA will provide a matching grant of $124,772, so that a total of $872,490 in new funds will be distributed to the counseling agencies.
“Counseling agencies are on the front lines of the battle to prevent foreclosures and keep neighborhoods whole,” said Priscilla Almodovar, President and Chief Executive Officer of SONYMA. “One of the biggest challenges facing the counseling community is developing the capacity to serve the many homeowners who face losing their homes. This Federal grant is so important because it will supplement New York State’s efforts and enable counseling agencies to help more New Yorkers in need. I am proud that SONYMA was able to facilitate the securing of these funds for New York State.”
The Federal grant was provided by funds from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. The program was created by Congress and is administered through a competitive application process run by NeighborWorks® America under guidelines outlined in the legislation.
SONYMA, a State agency that provides low interest rate mortgages to homebuyers, applied for the grant on behalf of 20 not-for-profit organizations that provide foreclosure and counseling intervention. SONYMA will administer distribution of the funds.
The 20 organizations that will receive funding from the SONYMA grant are:
ACORN Housing Corp. NY (Brooklyn, Bronx, and Long Island)
Albany County Rural Housing Alliance, Inc. (Albany County)
Belmont Shelter Corp. (Buffalo)
Better Neighborhoods, Inc. (Schenectady)
Bishop Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation, Inc. (Rochester)
Brooklyn Housing & Family Services, Inc. (Brooklyn)
Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. (Chautauqua County)
Friends of the North Country, Inc. (Essex County)
The Housing Council (Rochester)
Housing Help (Suffolk County)
Keuka Housing Council, Inc. (Yates County)
Long Island Housing Services (Suffolk County)
Nassau County Office of Housing & Homeless Services (Nassau County)
Neighborhood Preservation Company (Westchester County)
Parodneck Foundation (New York City)
Putnam County Housing (Putnam County)
Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation (Queens)
Rockland Housing Action Coalition, Inc. (Rockland County)
Rural Opportunities, Inc. (Rochester)
Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. (Westchester County)
In addition to the grant awarded to SONYMA, NeighborWorks® America separately awarded another $990,088 to nine homeowner counseling agencies located in New York State.
The grant to SONYMA will supplement New York State’s efforts to improve the capacity of counseling organizations to provide assistance to current and prospective homeowners. In November 2007, New York State committed more than $2 million to support housing counseling agencies in training staff and providing services to homeowners struggling to make payments or facing foreclosure.
And last July, when SONYMA’s “Keep the Dream” refinancing program was announced, the State committed nearly $650,000 to expand homeowner counseling efforts. This included nearly $400,000 in Urban Homeownership Assistance Program grants from the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to eight non-profit agencies and $250,000 from SONYMA to finance counseling for homeowners receiving Keep the Dream mortgages.
The Keep the Dream program was an outgrowth of the multi-agency Halt Abusive Lending Transactions (HALT) Task Force created in March 2007 to combat the subprime crisis. Since its formation, the Task Force hosted summits across the state, introduced new guidance for the mortgage industry, and participated in forums, public hearings, and grass-roots efforts to educate and inform borrowers at risk.
The foreclosure crisis has had a major impact on New York State communities. Nationally, the subprime market has grown from an estimated 10 percent of all mortgages underwritten in 1998 to about 22 percent in 2006. According to RealtyTrac, in 2007 there were 57,350 foreclosure filings in New York State affecting nearly 39,000 homes. The number of foreclosure filings represents a 55 percent increase over 2005.
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NeighborWorks® America is an independent, Congressionally-chartered non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., with a mission to provide access to sustainable homeownership and safe, affordable rental housing.
SONYMA was created in 1970 with the mission of helping low- and moderate-income families become homeowners. It offers a variety of low down payment mortgages that provide below-market fixed interest rates, as well as closing cost assistance through a network of participating lenders across the state.
Contact: Philip Lentz
Director of Communications
212-688-4000 x679
plentz (at) nyhomes (dot) org
