SEPTEMBER 8

Washington – Maryland will receive an additional $6.8 million to help communities that are struggling to reverse the effects of the foreclosure crisis, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced. The grants represent a third round of funding through HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program and will provide targeted emergency assistance to help local communities in Maryland acquire, redevelop or demolish foreclosed properties.

“These grants will support local efforts to reverse the effects these foreclosed properties have on their surrounding neighborhoods,” said Donovan.  “We want to make certain that we target these funds to those places with especially high foreclosure activity so we can help turn the tide in our battle against abandonment and blight.”

The funding is provided under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.   To date, there have been two other rounds of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding:  the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) provided $3.92 billion nationally and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) appropriated an additional $2 billion.

Like those earlier rounds of Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants, the targeted funds will be used to purchase foreclosed homes at a discount and to rehabilitate or redevelop them in order to respond to rising foreclosures and falling home values. Today, 92 cents of every dollar from the first round of funding is obligated – and is in use by communities, buying up and renovating homes, and creating jobs.

Learn more about HUD’s latest round of grants and see how the O’Malley/Brown administration has been using the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to revitalize communities in Maryland. Also, see how The Sun and the Baltimore Business Journal reported the news.