Similarly, White Plains city is set to receive over $900,000 as part of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The funding for federal homes affordable programs was announced by Congresswoman Nita Lowey who said that the housing crisis is getting worst in the metropolitan area of New York.

She said that the cost of living in New York is so steep and affordable housing is difficult to find. She added that she hopes that the federal funding will give a boost on efforts of community organizations to help people who are in dire need of housing assistance.

The Housing Counseling Program of the HUD provides grants to support and enable the delivery of various housing counseling services to distressed homeowners at risk of foreclosures, homebuyers, low-income and moderate-income renters and homeless.

The main goal of the program is to promote financial literacy, preserve homeownership, improve affordable housing access and expand homeownership opportunities.

Among the grant recipients in the counties of Rockland and Westchester and the amount they will receive are the Human Development Services of Westchester Inc. for $42,724, Rockland Housing and Action Coalition for $33,984, Community Housing Innovations for $23,496 and Westchester Residential Opportunities Inc. for $39,228.

Veronica Raphael, director of the Westchester Residential Opportunities Inc., said that the fund will help the organization serve the growing number of people in dire need of housing assistance following the Obama Administration’s launching of the Making Home Affordable Program.

On the other hand, White Plains will receive about $904,879 from HUD under the CDBG program. Industry experts said that the CDBG grants are useful in such a way that they provide support to various programs and activities. The funding will allow White Plains to invest on some projects without the need to raise costs for city taxpayers.

The CDBG funding is provided yearly to states, counties and cities nationwide to support development of urban communities through housing assistance and economic opportunities for low and moderate-income individuals and families.

The federal homes affordable program is geared towards foreclosure prevention and promotion of homeownership.

The county has received about $27.9 million as its share in the $3.9 billion allocated under the federal government’s Housing and Economic Recovery Act which was passed last year. So far, officials in Orange County were able to spend about $2.1 million for the initiative.

Other Florida governments, including counties of Palm Beach, Orlando and Hillsborough, are still preparing to spend their first federal foreclosure prevention funds. According to Orange officials, the $2.1 million initial spending of the county was used to purchase and provide down payment assistance for 30 foreclosed homes. So far, 14 out of the 30 foreclosed houses are now occupied.

The goal of Orange County officials is to place families on about 200 homes by spring. The end target is to provide housing to hundreds of families by the time the program expires in 2013.

Meanwhile, industry analysts cited several factors that hinder the federal foreclosure prevention initiative. One of these reasons is the increasing number of investors taking advantage of bargain prices to purchase bulk of foreclosure properties, thus posing a competition for the federal government’s foreclosure-buying programs.

Another obstacle is the complex ownership claims associated in each foreclosed home which resulted to long delays. But housing chief Mitchell Glasser said that Orange County is determined to meet its goals and milestones.

The overall goal of the county’s initiative is to use the public funds to purchase and renovate foreclosure houses overrun by weeds and damage by vandals. County officials are hoping that the initiative could help preserve market values of properties in neighborhoods severely affected by the foreclosure crisis, such as Azalea Park, Pine Hills and Union Park.

The initiative also aims to help low-income and moderate-income families occupy these houses. Most of these foreclosed homes for sale would be purchased and renovated with energy-friendly amenities. Then they will be put on the market for sale. Proceeds from the sale will be returned to the program to purchase more foreclosure houses.

Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker has proposed to allow distressed homeowners to remain in their houses by renting the foreclosed properties to them. He said that his Right to Rent proposal would help eradicate the blight in neighborhoods and preserve community and family stability.

Under Baker’s proposal, former homeowners would be allowed to stay in their homes, after they have been foreclosed by lenders, for as long as 10 years. The leasing of the bank foreclosed homes would be handled by a judge.

Lenders may sell the foreclosed houses but buyers are required to honor the existing lease agreement. Rents are subject to annual increase, based on the consumer price index of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Baker explained that the plan to allow former homeowners to lease their foreclosure homes would benefit them and their communities. He pointed out that in some areas of the country, renting is still cheaper than homeownership.

In areas of Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater in Florida, the average monthly market rent is $946 while homeownership costs are between $1,102 and $1,496.

Meanwhile, there are so many issues that need to be considered before a standard plan could be adopted for the proposal to rent foreclosed houses to former owners. In Virginia, all rights to possessions for both tenants and former owners are terminated when the property is under foreclosure. By virtue of foreclosure orders, leases are automatically voided.

In Maryland, a foreclosure sale terminates any leases entered by homeowners after they obtained a mortgage. A commercial lease agreement typically includes a clause of non-disturbance, under which lenders who foreclose agree not to disrupt the lives of existing tenants.

On the other hand, the government-sponsored enterprise, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. established the REO Rental Initiative. Under the initiative, homeowners who want to remain in their properties by leasing them are required to submit proof of income to show that they can afford to pay monthly rentals. Furthermore, owner-occupants must allow prospective buyers to view the foreclosed homes that they are renting.

However, Freddie Mac has yet to determine the duration of stay of homeowners. This means that when the foreclosed home is sold, tenants will have no choice but to vacate the property unless the buyers are investors who would allow them to continue leasing the foreclosed house.

Critics have been complaining that the program has not made a dent on foreclosures, particularly after the release of data showing that foreclosure filings in May still surpassed the 300,000 level.

But federal housing officials, several housing organizations and supporters of President Obama have been insisting that the program has prevented huge increases in foreclosed homes, citing figures of homeowners helped in the thousands.

Since there is no mechanism yet established to monitor the results of the Obama program to contain foreclosed homes, personal stories of those who applied for the program can perhaps give a glimpse of how the program is working.

A home loan consultant in Phoenix, Arizona lost his mortgage consulting business when the subprime crisis began. Last year, he applied many times for the Hope for Homeowners program but was rejected every time.

In February this year, he wrote to his primary lender, Aurora Loan Services, and his second mortgage holder, Washington Mutual, and told them he could no longer afford to pay his loan. Surprisingly, Washington Mutual wrote him back, telling him it would lower his rate from more than 11 percent to 5 percent.

Later, Aurora Services also wrote back and agreed to reduce his monthly payment from $2,000 to $1,400. This loan consultant is grateful that he was able to modify his loan under the government program and prevent his house from being added to long lists of foreclosed homes.

In Manchester, Connecticut, a quality analyst applied for refinancing for his $352,000 loan to cut his 7-percent interest and save at least $600 a month. His loan was originated by Countrywide, which was later acquired by Bank of America.

To this analyst’s frustration, Bank of America customer service agents were not helpful as he expected.

A computer program in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania wanted to refinance his primary loan of $260,000 and his second mortgage loan of $90,000, hoping to reduce his six-percent mortgage range to the four-percent range.

After months of talking with agents over the phone, he was finally turned down because his home equity is not enough to qualify for a refinanced loan.

The Obama program has been assessed differently in the past months. Over time, the number of Americans who have saved or not saved their houses from becoming foreclosed homes will tell whether the program has been successful or not.

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed the credit card reform legislation that would control increases in interest rates and provide more protections for users of credit cards. The senators voted 90-5. A similar bill in the House has already been approved.

The credit card reform legislation would require the credit card industry to comply with a list of unprecedented requirements that include provision of advance notice for increases in interest rates, prevention of high charges for over credit limit expenses and the prevention of the practice called universal default, which allows lenders to raise rates when a credit cardholder is past due on another debt.

A similar bill was passed by the House earlier this May. The two versions will be combined and then sent to President Obama for signing. The bill rode to approval on a wave of anger over difficult times caused by foreclosed home auction events and perceived greed by large financial companies.

Banks, credit card issuers and other financial firms historically have been powerful in Washington, but during the debates on the credit card issue, senators condemned them for their exploitative practices. Surely, the economic effects of foreclosed home auction events have helped pushed the senators to support the bill.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who co-sponsored the reform bill, said that the practices of the credit card industry are abusive and they need to be stopped.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill also explained that thousands of emails have been received by her office in the past several months all complaining about abusive credit card practices.

McCaskill spoke before fellow senators last week and reiterated that the credit card legislation is the most important bill that affects consumers directly, especially during these times when hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their houses to foreclosed home auction events.

Another Democratic legislator, Senator Tom Udall, also supported the bill by saying that credit card issuers that are fair to consumers have nothing to worry about.

In a public meeting last week in Albuquerque, President Obama again expressed his support for the bill, criticizing credit card ads that offer low rates but do not inform consumers that the rates can increase anytime.

According to White House reports, current overall credit card debt is $963 billion, an increase of 25 percent over total debt 10 years ago. The average household credit card debt in 2007 was $7,300.

Credit card debts are among the debt burdens of many homeowners who have lost their homes to foreclosed home auction events.

The $8,000 tax credit, part of the government foreclosures program launched this year, is available to taxpayers who are buying their own homes for the first time in 3 years and who can complete their home purchase before December 1, 2009.

Qualified home buyers can claim their $800 tax credits on their 2008 tax returns through an amendment or claim the credits on their 2009 tax returns.

Recognizing opportunities in this provision of the government foreclosures program, several states have created loan programs that would advance the tax credits to qualified taxpayers so they could buy their homes and help reduce the glut of foreclosed homes and other homes for sale. The loans are provided as second mortgages that would be paid when the home buyers receive the $8,000 tax refunds from the IRS.

Missouri takes the credit of having first thought of the scheme using the government foreclosures program. Its scheme allows home buyers to advance the tax credit, up to six percent of the home sales price, without interest and pay it before June 2010.

If the advanced tax credit is not paid, it would be converted into a 10-year fixed-rate second mortgage. Missouri also requires that the first loan is a 30-year fixed-rate loan issued by lenders participating in Missouri Housing Development Commission’s bond programs.

Meanwhile, the state of Washington, which is already running its tax credit loan program, plans to expand the program into a down-payment program. James McIntire, the state treasurer, has proposed the creation of an interest-earning public-private partnership fund that would help prospective home buyers with their down payments.

McIntire recommended the investment of $25 million into the private-public fund, which is deposited in a bank that would provide credit lines to the Washington Housing Finance Commission for its down payment loan schemes.

Other states which have launched their own loan initiatives using the government foreclosures program’s $8,000 tax credit provision are New Jersey, Delaware, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho and New Mexico. Some states added low interest rates on the loans; some offered the loans interest-free for certain periods.

As these loan programs make progress, more states are expected to create their own schemes from the tax credit provision of the Obama’s government foreclosures program.

Previously, Buffet wrote in his recent shareholder letter that he supported the government foreclosures program, including the bailouts of distressed debts and companies, but added that the bailouts of financial institutions will have unwelcome aftereffects such as inflation.

Buffet, 78 years old, said he has seen no real recovery in the housing and retail sectors despite federal initiatives such as the government foreclosures program. He said that there are uncertainties even if the markets level off.

This week, Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Obama, said there is an observed leveling off in the national economy; hence there is no need for another stimulus package to add to the $787 billion funding enacted in February, which also included funding for the government foreclosures program.

The national economy contracted in the first quarter at a yearly adjusted rate of 6.1 percent, weaker than what was predicted. The current crisis is considered the worst crisis since the 1957 to 1958 recession.

At Berkshire’s annual meeting this week, record numbers of shareholders are expected to participate after Berkshire posted five consecutive quarters of decreased profits. Rating companies downgraded Berkshire’s top AAA rating because of the declines and Berkshire’s rushed investment in oil company ConocoPhillips.

On February 28, Berkshire announced that its December 2008 book value of $109.3 billion fell by about $8 billion.

Buffett and top executive Charles Munger are expected to discuss Berkshire’s businesses, the nationwide economic condition and the Obama administration’s economic initiatives which may include the effectiveness of the government foreclosures program.

Over 500 financial institutions received more than $390 billion from the government bailout program. This is in addition to the $75 billion allocated for government foreclosures program to help up to 4 million troubled American homeowners to avoid foreclosures.

Buffett and his executives have used recent annual meetings to promote their company as an acquirer of foreign businesses. They also have expressed their pride in their company’s practice of avoiding the reckless practices of many Wall Street financial wizards that largely caused the avalanche of private lender and government foreclosures.

First Look is a program created by the National Community Stabilization Trust to facilitate the transfer of lender-owned properties to community housing organizations in partnership with city and state government foreclosures programs.

The program will use the $3.9 billion funding provided by the federal government under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. Wells Fargo has also added its own funding of $2 million to the program.

Under the First Look program, nonprofits, local officials and real estate agents will be helped by Wells Fargo in the sale of vacant foreclosure properties to first-time homebuyers and new owners. In addition, the bank will also provide responsible home ownership training before giving loans to qualified borrowers.

In cooperation with government foreclosures program officials, Wells Fargo chose the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minnesota for the pilot stage of the First Look program.

According to Joe Obayon, top executive for community servicing for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Servicing, said Wells Fargo is supporting government foreclosures programs in order to hasten the recovery of the housing market and the national economy.

He said if Wells Fargo cannot find a sustainable option for a distressed borrower, then the lender would find a way to mitigate the effects of foreclosure by making sure that the foreclosed home does not contribute to neighborhood blight and deterioration of home values.

Wells Fargo also has opened its Wells Fargo Housing Foundation services to housing nonprofits and other entities that are carrying out government foreclosures programs. Through the foundation’s services, housing nonprofits can buy real estate owned homes at a discount from the bank and then rehabilitate them for their own home ownership programs. The only requirement is the tax-exempt status of the nonprofits under the Internal Revenue Service.

Wells Fargo said that it has helped over 706,000 homeowners from foreclosure under its own programs in partnership with government foreclosures programs from 2007 to 2008. It has also been in the forefront of efforts to help government foreclosures programs run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Treasury and the HOPE NOW since 2007.

The stabilization program was launched in July last year, rushed by federal officials and legislators to prevent the continued growth of private and government foreclosures, but until now, communities reeling from abandoned forclosed homes have not yet seen results from the program.

In Atlanta, private-lender and government foreclosures continue to batter communities and declining home prices have increased the number of abandoned repo homes, worsening blight in neighborhoods.

The affordable housing nonprofit Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership studied home prices across metropolitan Atlanta and found that median home sales prices in neighborhoods hardest hit by private and government foreclosures fell by 16 percent during the second half of 2008.

John O’Callaghan, head of the neighborhood nonprofit, hopes the programs are implemented within the next 2 to 3 months to prevent the further slide of home prices and the further addition of private lender and government foreclosures to the foreclosure-overloaded housing market.

Likewise, Robert Welsh of the Dirty Truth Campaign called on local officials to move faster to be able to save more private and government foreclosures. The nonprofit organization tracks the effects of foreclosures in the zip code 30310 area, which includes Sylvan Hills, Pittsburg and southwest Atlanta communities.

In July last year, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program was funded with $4 billion, with funds allocated to states, counties and cities based on a formula that incorporated factors such as numbers of private-lender and government foreclosures, foreclosure rates, delinquent loans and household income. The federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also created parameters that would be followed by local governments in allocating and spending the funds.

With the level of Georgia foreclosures lower than those of hardest hit states such as California, Nevada and Florida, the state of Georgia received $153 million, with over $70 million set aside for metropolitan Atlanta counties. California and Florida received over $500 million each.

In response to complaints from various community organizations, local government officials in Atlanta said they have been brainstorming plans and seeking proposals from development companies. HUD officer Brian Sullivan argued it is better to implement the plan right rather than implement it quickly and then find out mistakes in the implementation.

The $75 billion anti-foreclosure plan is expected to help nearly 9 million distressed homeowners to modify their loans to avoid foreclosures.

The program would be especially beneficial to the almost 43,070 pre-filed Florida foreclosures. Florida foreclosures rate is among the top 10 highest in the United States, with 10,007 homeowners who have lost their homes to foreclosures in January 2009.

The foreclosure prevention plan calls for mortgage lenders to modify loans by lowering interest rates to help distressed homeowners remain in their properties.

In Florida, homeowners who want to avoid foreclosures and have loans guaranteed or owned by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Association are qualified to refinance through these government-sponsored enterprises.

A key feature of the program that would be a big help in reducing Florida foreclosures is the reduced monthly payments. Under the program, loans would be restructured in such a way that distressed homeowners would pay only 31 percent or less from their monthly income to mortgage lenders.

Additionally, total debt payments, including credit cards and car loans, would be not over 55 percent of the homeowner’s pre-tax income.

Here are some things to prepare by homeowners who want to avail of the program and avoid Florida foreclosures:

• Credit report
• Bank statements and tax records since 2007
• Current income documents
• List of recent expenses
• Brief explanation of current financial condition

Meanwhile, another mortgage relief bill that would help stem the flood of Florida foreclosures gives authority to bankruptcy judges to require mortgage lenders to modify loans for struggling homeowners.

House legislators are expected to vote on the mortgage relief bill, which Democrats predict would be passed.

Under the pending mortgage relief bill, bankruptcy judges would use their power to determine whether a homeowner has received a reasonable deal from a bank to modify a loan. If bankruptcy judges think that homeowners will not receive a fair deal, they would step in by modifying the loans themselves.

Mortgage services have been lobbying against the bill designed to help struggling homeowners modify their loans to avoid foreclosures.

Nationwide foreclosures have seen a 25.7 percent drop in January 2009 to 72,694 from the previous month’s 97,841. However, the foreclosure rate decline is not substantial enough to warrant a sigh of relief from industry experts and legislators.