12.01.2000 ET

(CSRwire) Freddie Mac and the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) today announced a $20 million initiative to expand affordable homeownership opportunities for low to moderate income families, minorities, and other historically underserved Atlanta neighborhoods.

The two-year initiative is expected to help hundreds of hard working families become homeowners by combining aggressive outreach and borrower counseling from the NAACP Atlanta Branch with affordable mortgage products that Bank of America will originate and Freddie Mac will purchase.

“We are delighted to work with Bank of America and Freddie Mac to address housing and community development needs in the city of Atlanta,” said Judith Withers-Hanson, executive director of the NAACP Atlanta Branch. “We feel that our educational HomeBuyer Workshops and counseling services will be very beneficial in giving everyone an opportunity in becoming homeowners.”

The NAACP Atlanta Branch will provide a wide range of borrower services including one-on-one counseling, telephone counseling, and housing and mortgage financing information through its network of local partners. The Atlanta Center for Homeownership and the Consumer Credit Counseling Service have provided these essential financial and support services to date and the addition of the NAACP Atlanta Branch effort will expand access to more families.

“I want to applaud the Atlanta NAACP for working with Freddie Mac to craft this exciting campaign to invigorate homeownership across Atlanta,” said Craig Nickerson, Freddie Mac’s vice president of Community Development Lending. “Today’s announcement builds on the $1 billion The Select Atlanta Homeownership Alliance announced last July and will enable even more families to open the door to successful, long-term homeownership."

"In addition to local efforts the NAACP has a national initiative to make sure that all Americans have the opportunity to be homeowners, if they so desire. Our local initiative embraces the spirit of our national agenda so that we can be the vehicles to address housing needs in the City of Atlanta, “said Michael Julian Bond, Chief Programs Officer, NAACP Atlanta Branch office.

“Homeownership is the foundation for healthy communities,” said Les Moseley, Senior Vice President -- Community Development Banking Market Manager, Bank of America Georgia. “Our earlier commitment of $1 billion in mortgages combined with the commitment of all the organizations will create homeownership opportunities for Atlanta like never before.”

The Select Atlanta Homeownership Alliance involves a commitment by Bank of America to originate $1 billion worth of mortgages in Atlanta and by Freddie Mac to purchase the bank’s eligible mortgages so that capital can be freed up for new homebuyers.

Bank of America, with $672 billion in assets, is the largest bank in the United States. It has full-service operations in 21 states and the District of Columbia and provides financial products and services to two million businesses, as well as international corporate financial services for business transactions in 190 countries. The company’s stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New York, Pacific, and London stock exchanges, and certain shares are listed on the Tokyo Exchange.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in support of homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage passthrough securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened doors for one in six homebuyers and more than two million renters in America.

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