FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2002
CONTACT: Mark Burneko
202.220.2360
For more information about the conference,
click
here.
NeighborWorks® Network Answers President's Call To
Increase Minority Homeownership in America
Local Affordable Housing Experts, Minority Homebuyers Meet
President Bush at October 15 White House Conference To Show Success
of NeighborWorks® Campaign for Home Ownership.
Washington, DC — Representatives of the NeighborWorks®
network and homebuyers assisted through the national NeighborWorks®
Campaign for Home Ownership will meet with President Bush and
HUD Secretary Mel Martinez at a daylong White House conference
Tuesday to discuss ways of significantly increasing homeownership
opportunities for minority families.
Kim Berry, a Native American single mother who purchased her
home in suburban Long Island, New York through the national NeighborWorks®
Campaign, is among several minority homeowners invited to the
White House conference to discuss the challenges they faced in
purchasing their homes. Ms. Berry, whose annual income is $50,000
below the median income in Islip, New York; was a former renter
who was able to use her HUD Section 8 rental assistance to purchase
her home through HUD's housing choice homeownership voucher
program. Ms. Berry was assisted through a unique public-private
partnership involving HUD, the Treasury Department's Community
Development Financial Institutions fund, JP Morgan Chase, Fannie
Mae and the Community Development Corporation of Long Island,
a NeighborWorks® organization.
"Kim Berry provides a perfect example of how dedication
and hard work can truly make dreams come true," said Ellen
Lazar, executive director of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation,
which founded and supports the NeighborWorks® network. "She
has worked hard to overcome life's challenges and is an
inspiration to all American families who are interested in owning
a home of their own."
The NeighborWorks® network is also represented at the conference
by Charles Rucks, executive director of Springfield (Massachusetts)
Neighborhood Housing Services; Dr. Francine Justa, executive director
of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City; Marianne Garvin,
executive vice president and COO of CDC Long Island; Martie North,
manager of the Argenta Community Development Corporation's
NeighborWorks® HomeOwnership Center in North Little Rock,
Arkansas and a homebuyer assisted by Argenta; and Mary Lee Widener,
President and CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of America,
a specialized secondary market for the NeighborWorks® network
For the past decade, locally-based nonprofit organizations participating
in the NeighborWorks® Campaign for Home Ownership have achieved
unmatched success in creating homeownership opportunities for
low- and moderate-income families. Of the more than 60,000 families
who have purchased homes through the Campaign, half are minorities;
compared to 19 percent of the families who have obtained conventional
mortgages and 35 percent of those who hold government-backed mortgage
loans.
To date, the national NeighborWorks® Campaign for Home Ownership
has generated more than $4.5 billion in total direct investment,
helped more than 60,000 lower-income families purchase or improve
their homes, and counseled more than 350,000 potential homebuyers.
On November 20, 2002, the Campaign will launch an expanded five-year
drive to expand homeownership among lower-income and minority
families. The goals of this effort will contribute to meeting
the target established by the Bush administration's Blueprint
for the American Dream initiative of adding 5.5 million minority
families to the ranks of homeowners by the end of the decade.
Neighborhood Reinvestment, a national nonprofit organization
created by Congress nearly 25 years ago to provide financial support
and training for community-based revitalization efforts, is among
several national organizations invited by President Bush and Secretary
Martinez to be part of the effort to close the nation's
homeownership gap for ethnic and racial minorities.
The Corporation charters and provides technical assistance, training,
and financial support to the NeighborWorks® network of more
than 240 nonprofit affordable housing and community development
organizations serving more than 2,100 urban, suburban and rural
communities nationwide. This year alone, the network generated
more than $1.5 billion in total direct investment and helped more
than 64,000 lower-income families purchase, improve or rent their
homes.
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