Rep. Fattah Announces $1,490,000 in Affordable Housing Grants for Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), a champion for affordable housing and mortgage foreclosure relief, today announced the award of nearly $1.5 million in Affordable Housing Grants to nonprofit agencies to create 220 units in five Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The six awards to five nonprofits, totaling $1,490,000, were announced at a news conference at Community College of Philadelphia in the Winnet Student Life Building.

"Affordable housing and home ownership for middle class and lower-income Americans have been a priority throughout my public service from the Pennsylvania Legislature to Congress," Fattah said. "From tearing down public housing high-rise 'warehouses' to developing a new approach to mortgage foreclosure relief to awarding these grants to nonprofits, I have been dedicated to increasing access and availability of affordable housing in Philadelphia and across urban America."

The affordable housing grants announced by Fattah come from longtime partner the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, assisted by Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and PNC Bank. The new units will provide much-needed housing to seniors, the homeless, veterans, individuals recovering from substance abuse and victims of domestic violence in Francisville, Germantown, South Philadelphia, Tioga and West Philadelphia.

The collaboration between Fattah and the Congressionally-chartered Federal Home Loan Bank has been a fruitful one for Philadelphia, culminating in a series of annual award announcements by the Congressman. Fattah has been a leading Congressional advocate for Affordable Housing programs by FHLBank/Pittsburgh. Other FHLBank units and Philadelphia-area banks have also partnered for affordable housing.

Over the past two decades, FHLBank/Pittsburgh has approved $57,221,461 for affordable housing programs and homebuyer grants in the City of Philadelphia, channeled toward creation of 3,458 housing units.

Announcing the FHLBank awards has been one of numerous results-oriented housing advocacy efforts by the nine-term Congressman.

In 2010, Fattah, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, created and guided to passage the Emergency Homeowners' Relief Fund, which was included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama.

The program is patterned after the Pennsylvania Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), which Fattah developed as a young state legislator in the 1980s. It will provide $1 billion in funds nationwide – including over $100 million in Pennsylvania -- to help millions of responsible American homeowners avoid foreclosure. Targeted to recently unemployed borrowers, the program will keep families in their homes and mitigate the effects of recession.

Fattah, almost two decades ago, proposed and championed the tear-down of Philadelphia's ugly and dangerous public housing high-rises. He advocated for and helped develop federal funding for thousands of units of affordable public housing on scattered sites that blended with and stabilized surrounding city neighborhoods.

Friday's press conference featured Congressman Fattah; Sister Mary Scullion of Project H.O.M.E.; John Bendel of FHLBank/Pittsburgh; as well as housing, neighborhood, banking and nonprofit agency officials.

The grants cover a portion of total costs for developments sponsored by Project H.O.M.E. (two developments), NewCourtland Elder Services, Catch Inc., ACHIEVEability and Women Against Abuse. Each grant is for $250,000 except $240,000 for ACHIEVEability.

SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah

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