As Foreclosure And Affordable
Housing Crisis Spreads&
Leahy Announces $1.2 M.
In Grants
To Vermonts
NeighborWorks Centers
To Sustain Their
Affordable Housing Development
And Ownership Counseling
. . .
Leahy Helped Create 1st NeighborWorks Organization In Vermont In 1993
WASHINGTON (Thursday, Feb. 7) Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
announced Thursday that Vermonts five NeighborWorks organizations are
getting $1.2 million in NeighborWorks America grants. According to
NeighborWorks America, a federally funded nonprofit housing organization, their
partnership with the Vermont NeighborWorks organizations will help invest $46
million into Vermont communities this year to stimulate economic development
and bring more affordable housing opportunities to Vermonters.
The five Vermont NeighborWorks organizations receiving grants are:
·
Central Vermont Community Land Trust in Barre: $144,725
·
Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington: $412,296
·
Gilman Housing Trust of Newport and Lyndonville: $207,428
·
NeighborWorks of Western Vermont in West Rutland: $265,000
·
Rockingham Area Community Land Trust in Springfield: $215,000
Leahy, a senior member of
the Senate Appropriations Committee and of its Subcommittee on Transportation
and Housing and Urban Development, which handles the Senates work in
writing the annual budget bills that fund NeighborWorks America, helped
establish Vermonts first NeighborWorks organization in 1993 through a
grant to Rutland West NHS, currently NeighborWorks of Western Vermont.
Leahy said Vermont organizations depend on annual NeighborWorks grants to
provide a wide variety of housing-related services from affordable housing
development to homeownership counseling and the establishment of revolving loan
funds or alternative mortgage solutions for Vermonters struggling to purchase
homes.
Despite increased demand
for affordable housing options for low to moderate income Americans, Leahy said
the Bush Administration has essentially level-funded the NeighborWorks America
program nationwide below $120 million during each of the past three
years. And despite the nationwide housing foreclosure crisis and housing
slump, the President actually seeks to cut $155 million from the program in his
budget proposal submitted to Congress this week. Earlier this year, in
the budget for the current fiscal year, Congress more than doubled the
NeighborWorks America budget to address the national home foreclosure
crisis. That new funding, unrelated to Wednesdays announcement,
will be competitively awarded to housing organizations later this year.
Over the last 15
years, since we established Vermonts first NeighborWorks organization,
we have expanded the number of nonprofit housing organizations eligible for
these grants and brought millions of dollars into Vermont to house the most
vulnerable Vermonters and to make homeownership a reality for many
others, said Leahy, who has led an effort to increase funding for
housing programs within HUD and for the NeighborWorks program. We
could do much more to stimulate this economy and fend off recession if the Bush
Administration focused on the urgent housing needs of Americans instead of
pumping tens of billions of dollars every month overseas for the misguided war
in Iraq. I will continue to fight for affordable housing assistance for
Vermonters, who are struggling all the more as the economy worsens. As
far as the federal budget is concerned, this is the kind of high priority here
at home that the war in Iraq is not.
NeighborWorks was established in 1978 by Congress. According to
NeighborWorks America, over the last five years the NeighborWorks network has
helped leverage nearly $15 billion in Americas urban, rural, and
suburban communities; assisted more than 80,000 Americans become homeowners;
and developed and managed more than 70,000 units of affordable, high-quality
multifamily housing. This year, NeighborWorks America will provide more
than $76 million to its network of more than 230 community-based nonprofit
organizations.
# # # # #
LOCAL CONTACTS:
Preston Jump, Central Vermont Community Land Trust, (802) 476-4493 ext
204
Brenda Torpy, Champlain Housing Trust, (802) 862-6244
Merten Bangemann-Johnson, Gilman Housing Trust, (802) 334-1541 ext 202
Luddy Biddle, NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, (802) 236-2586
Jeff Staudinger, Rockingham Area Community Land Trust, (802) 885-3220
ext 220
Mia Joiner-Moore, NeighborWorks America, (617) 585-5016