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Tarrant County Establishes Home of Your Own (HOYO) Coalition with United Cerebral Palsy of Tarrant County, Fannie Mae, and the Texas HOYO to Help People with Disabilities Overcome Obstacles to Homeownership

Tarrant County Establishes Home of Your Own (HOYO) Coalition with United Cerebral Palsy of Tarrant County, Fannie Mae, and the Texas HOYO to Help People with Disabilities Overcome Obstacles to Homeownership

Published 03-09-00

Submitted by Fannie Mae

Mayor Kenneth Barr today joined representatives from United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Tarrant County, the Texas Home of Your Own Coalition (HOYO), and Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE), the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages, to announce the Tarrant County Home of Your Own (HOYO) Coalition. The HOYO Coalition helps individuals with disabilities and their families overcome significant barriers to homeownership through home-buyer education, counseling, and grants for down payment, closing costs, access modifications, and property repair. HOYO Coalitions also work with local lenders to offer Fannie Mae’s HomeChoiceSM, a unique product created to provide affordable homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income borrowers who have disabilities, or who have disabled family members living with them.

"Owning a home of your own is an important part of the American dream," said Mayor Barr. "I am pleased that through this new partnership announced today, more people in Ft. Worth and throughout Tarrant County will have the opportunity to make this dream a reality. The new Tarrant County HOYO Coalition is a significant step towards addressing the housing needs of people with disabilities and their families."

"The new Tarrant County HOYO Coalition is part of a national effort to expand homeownership opportunities for individuals with disabilities through partnerships with lenders; state housing finance agencies; state and local housing and disability agencies; and support service organizations," said Patty Anderson, executive director of UCP of Texas.

"Fannie Mae is pleased to make the HomeChoice mortgage product available to Bank One Mortgage, the participating lender in Tarrant County," said Michael T. Hernandez, Fannie Mae vice president for housing and community development. "By reducing the down payment requirements and accepting alternative sources of income, a HomeChoice mortgage can help bridge the affordability gap."

In addition to reduced down payment requirements and alternative income sources, HomeChoice allows for more flexible use of second mortgage financing for closing costs, rehabilitation, and access modifications, and special qualifying and underwriting guidelines for borrowers earning below 50 percent of the area median income ($27,650).

The Tarrant County HOYO Coalition is part of the Texas HOYO Coalition, an initiative sponsored by UCP of Texas. Texas HOYO is 1 of 22 public/private partnerships nationwide designed to provide homeownership opportunities to persons with disabilities. This partnership allows the HOYO Coalition to provide individuals with disabilities access to lenders that offer HomeChoice. Bank One Mortgage is the participating lender in Tarrant County.

Members of the Tarrant County HOYO Coalition include Consumer Credit Counseling of Fort Worth, Inc.; Homeownership Opportunities of Fort Worth, Inc.; City of Fort Worth Housing Department; Tarrant County Community Development Department; Morris Real Estate; Ability Resources, Inc; Bank One Mortgage; National Federation for the Blind, Fort Worth Chapter; and Northside Neighborhood Association.

The Tarrant County Coalition has garnered the support of significant national, state, and local government resources beginning with a recent grant of $80,000 from the Sid W. Richardson Foundation.

"We are pleased that the Foundation was able to provide the initial funding needed to establish the Tarrant County HOYO," said Val Wilkie, executive director of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation.

"We are thrilled to serve as the lead agency for the Tarrant County HOYO Coalition to help more people with disabilities buy a home," said Monica Prather, president and CEO of UCP of Tarrant County. "Financial, attitudinal and physical barriers make it nearly impossible for most people with disabilities to buy homes. With the assistance of the HOYO Coalition, Tarrant County residents with disabilities can obtain the information and services they need, including a specially designed mortgage."

"We are proud to be working with the Tarrant County HOYO Coalition, UCP of Texas, Fannie Mae, and so many other local partners to offer HomeChoice to Tarrant County residents," said Terri Ottley, vice president of Bank One.

For more information on the Tarrant County HOYO Coalition, please call Scott Haynes at 817-332-7171, ext. 610. For more information on Fannie Mae’s HomeChoice mortgage product or other affordable housing initiatives, consumers may call Fannie Mae’s Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-7FANNIE (1-800-732-6643) Monday through Friday, from 9am to 5pm EST.

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Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages. Over the past 31 years, Fannie Mae has provided nearly $2.8 trillion of mortgage financing for over 34 million families. More information about Fannie Mae can be found on the Internet at http://www.fanniemae.com.

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