Federal Grant Allows for Jacksonville Affordable Housing to Get Underway

With any luck, we won’t have to write about affordable housing dilemmas in the state for much longer. As the market slows and buyers are offered incentives by developers and sellers, the aim is for purchasing property to become a more appealing option.

Also helping the cause? Help from the federal government. For example, $300,000 has been awarded to an affiliate of the Housing Partnership of Northeast Florida for homeownership preservation in Jacksonville; the sole purpose of this money is to provide for capital for Florida home loans for low- and moderate-income families.

Jacksonville Affordable Mortgages will receive it. The Florida home mortgage company will be required to provide at least a one-to-one match with private, nonfederal funds. Consequently, this will allow the agency to leverage about $1.2 million in private capital.

“With the additional capital, we will be able to reach out to more families and assist them with affordable housing options that preserve and sustain neighborhoods,” said Carolyn Ettlinger, president of the Housing Partnership.

The funds will be used to provide second mortgages to low-income families and first mortgages to Florida home loan refinance homeowners who have been victimized by predatory lenders and are facing foreclosure.

Unfortunately, there were more than 4,000 foreclosures or delinquencies in Jacksonville last year and the city was seventh nationally in the first quarter of 2006. Aside from making buying easier for lower-income workers, this grant will be used to assist current home owners that are having difficulty with their exotic Florida mortgage products.