Foreclosure Grant Aid From Ohio Housing Finance Agency
More than $3 million has been sanctioned by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. It will enable counseling agencies to operate with counseling through 18 centres across the state. This $3.06 million grant emanates from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program and it is part of $180 million action taken by the Congress in its fiscal 2008 appropriations bill. The programme funding is being activated through NeighborWorks America based in Washington DC dealing with housing matters.
How much each organization will get is not being specified until finalization of contracts. One of the beneficiaries will be Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission based in Columbus. In south east Ohio, the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development was declared qualified for the federal grant to serve the people of that region. Also on the qualified list was Community Action Commission of Fayette County southwest of Central Ohio. More than half of the agencies selected are concentrated in and around Cleveland. Foreclosures have been the highest making it rank sixth in the foreclosure race amongst all the metropolitan cities in the country.
The country is in the grip of a foreclosure tsunami. Although the primary accused is the sub-prime floating interest rate mortgage there are many other factors at play that have aggravated the situation – a situation that has caused whispers of recession being heard. Since 9/11 the stock market has been wobbly. There have been job losses. Detroit is one of the worst hits with the automobile industry floundering. Population levels have also gone down. Together with this medical bills have gone up and divorces being rampant have caused instability in the social structure. To add fuel to the fire a loan culture came to be aggressively sold via the credit card craze. It was thought that with money being pumped into the market by consumers, it would give the flagging economy a kick. Nothing happened. People kept on taking loans to get out of other loans. Into this mess crept in sub-prime loans meant to cater to those who could not qualify for prime loans because of modest income and shaky credit. The loans were aggressively peddled lured by commission and investment hopes. The general public were made pawns to snap up loans they could not run. The scheme backfired with lenders having taken on more foreclosures than they could digest. Foreclosures now dot the desolate land. No remedy has been found – only short term palliatives are being introduced.
