7.17.2001 ET

(CSRwire) U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez and Washington, DC Mayor Anthony Williams today applauded the launch of Building a Better Community, a new effort to rehabilitate as many as 300 empty foreclosed houses in Washington, DC.

The Church Association for Community Services (CACS), a faith-based organization, is implementing the Building a Better Community project through an innovative collaboration with HUD, the District of Columbia, Freddie Mac, The DC Housing Finance Agency, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Adams National Bank, SunTrust Mortgage and several local non-profit organizations.

“This is what partnership is all about,” said HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. “By tapping into the energy of the faith community, we're saving houses and giving homes to hundreds of families looking for their American dream.”

“I’m pleased that we have partnered to build and sustain healthy neighborhoods,” Mayor Williams said. “The cornerstone of safe, stable neighborhoods is good housing. We're committed to protecting affordable housing and reducing displacement, converting vacant buildings into new housing, and building new housing for people of all incomes.”

CACS has already acquired and begun renovations on 24 properties in different neighborhoods through an asset control area agreement with HUD. HUD has earmarked an additional 124 properties for rehabilitation through the program. CACS will receive additional properties at discounts up to 50 percent as they become available. The DC Department of Housing and Community Development has also agreed to allow CACS to obtain the vacant houses it owns that are near the HUD properties. After the repairs are complete, CACS will market and sell the homes to low- and moderate-income families through its network of over 60 churches in the District of Columbia.

“Freddie Mac is delighted to work with Secretary Martinez, Mayor Williams and CACS to increase homeownership opportunities in our nation,” said Leland C. Brendsel, Chairman and CEO of Freddie Mac. “The Building a Better Community Initiative will help reinvigorate our neighborhoods by replacing vacant properties with attractive and affordable homes.”

HomeSteps, Freddie Mac’s real-estate owned sales unit, will provide asset disposition expertise and undertake and oversee the repairs on many of the properties. This will help reduce the Building a Better Community’s program costs and enable CACS to reach more families.

“The CACS Building a Better Community program is designed to repair our communities by repairing the empty and abandoned homes that do so much to damage them,” says Reverend Frank D. Tucker, chairman of CACS and chairman of the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC. “This is a program with a big vision. We are fortunate to work closely with Mayor Williams, HUD, Freddie Mac, and the other partners who are coming together to provide our families with this outstanding opportunity to build upstanding communities.”

“Building a Better Community Is Key to the Summer of Homeownership”

Part of Freddie Mac’s “Summer of Homeownership”, the CACS Building a Better Community effort will stimulate homeownership and economic growth in key neighborhoods across the District of Columbia. Freddie Mac’s “Summer of Homeownership” is a focused, nationwide effort to pioneer new products, initiatives, and technology that will help expand homeownership opportunities to an additional 250,000 to 400,000 families a year.

“As part of our Summer of Homeownership, Building a Better Community marks a watershed in the renewal of America’s urban neighborhoods,” said Tom Walsh, vice president of HomeSteps at Freddie Mac. “This is a cohesive and well-integrated effort to transform empty houses into attractive homeownership opportunities. We applaud Secretary Martinez, Mayor Williams, Reverend Frank D. Tucker of CACS, and the other partners for having the vision and the commitment to make CACS Building a Better Community a reality.”

Thanks to Freddie Mac’s commitment, families can buy homes with conventional mortgages that require as little as $1,000 or 2 percent of the sale price coming from their personal funds. Borrowers can cover the rest of the mandatory 3 percent down payment through grants, gifts, unsecured loans, or Individual Development Accounts.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Adams National Bank, SunTrust Mortgage and the DC Housing Finance Agency will provide affordable mortgage financing for qualified borrowers. Freddie Mac has committed to purchase the mortgages made to buyers under the new program in order to ensure a continuous supply of mortgage funds for additional homebuyers.

The CACS Building a Better Community initiative is the latest Freddie Mac effort in Washington, DC. During the past five years, Freddie Mac has financed more than $20 billion in mortgages, financing 144,459 homes in the National Capital area.

Washington, D.C. Providing Homebuyer Counseling, Assistance

To help more families take advantage of the CACS Building a Better Community program, the DC Housing Finance Agency, the Greater Washington Urban League, and HomeFree USA are providing pre- and post-purchase homeownership counseling.

“This program is an exciting concept and solution to a problem that has plagued the District for many years. Rehabbing and selling these distressed properties to low-to moderate-income families would help strengthen neighborhoods through the City,” said Zoreana Barnes, acting director of the DC Housing Finance Agency. “We look forward to assisting the Mayor, CACS, Freddie Mac and the other housing partners in this new endeavor.”

The DC Department of Housing and Community Development will provide downpayment assistance to qualified families through the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) administered by the Greater Washington Urban League. The HPAP provides down payment and closing costs assistance in the form of settlement loans to very low-, low-and moderate-income first-time homebuyers for the purchase of single-family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments. For more information, interested families should call CACS at 202-625-8367.


Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders. By supplying lenders with the money to make mortgages and packaging the mortgages into marketable securities, Freddie Mac sustains a stable mortgage credit system and reduces the mortgage rates paid by homebuyers. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened the doors for one in six homebuyers in America and two million renters.

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