Obama Signs into Law Act Helping Families Save Homes
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–President Barack Obama has signed into law the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009. The law expands the reach of the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Programs, improves the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Hope for Homeowners program and streamlines how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–President Barack Obama has signed into law the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009. The law expands the reach of the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Programs, improves the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Hope for Homeowners program and streamlines how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) supports thousands of homeless support programs across America. “This is another critical step forward in this administration’s effort to strengthen our nation’s housing market and help millions of American homeowners stay in their homes,” says HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.”Specifically, this law improves FHA’s Hope for Homeowners Program, making it a more flexible and attractive option for homeowners and lenders alike. By reducing the cost of this program and easing the eligibility requirements, we believe Hope for Homeowners is better able to help struggling families. The law also permits FHA lenders to offer families more substantial loan modifications, similar to those currently provided under the Making Home Affordable program.”According to Donovan, FHA will now have more authority to keep bad actors out of the FHA programs and additional enforcement tools to police those lenders who employ false or misleading marketing tactics.”Finally, this law allows HUD to take a giant leap forward in our ability to help thousands of local homeless housing and service programs across this country. Local communities will have much greater flexibility to put federal funding to work in a way that makes sense for them,” concludes Donovan.