Funding to Help Kentucky Buyers of Foreclosure Houses
May 12th, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
The city of Bowling Green has been presented with over $2 million in federal funds by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear. The money was presented to Bowling Green’s Housing Authority to help families who want to buy foreclosure houses.
Last year, the U.S. Congress approved the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) which aims to help low income individuals and families purchase properties that have been repossessed and abandoned as a result of the economic crisis and homeowners’ failure to pay their mortgages.
The city’s Housing Authority plans to use the money to help well-deserving families. Special projects director Carrie Barnette explained that what the agency hopes to do is to take families out of rental houses and offer them the opportunity to purchase and own houses.
In a statement, Beshear praised the city officials for demonstrating how effectively they could use the funds to rehabilitate neighborhoods. Under the NSP, the Housing Authority is allowed to rehabilitate forclosures homes and sell them to low income individuals and families.
Beshear said that turning low-income individuals and families into homeowners will help the whole neighborhood by preserving market values of properties and giving a healthy and quality life to residents and the whole neighborhood.
Some officials at the Housing Authority said that the city of Bowling Green has been spared from the effects of recession. However, they noted that major economic changes still occurred in the area.
On her part, Barnette believed that the federal funds Beshear has granted would come a long way in helping low income individuals and families and subsequently, the city of Bowling Green.
Homeowners who want to qualify for the NSP grant should sign up in the Housing Authority Home Ownership Education Program.
The NSP program funding is appropriated under the Recovery Act. The program was created for the purpose of rehabilitation and stabilizing neighborhoods that have been greatly affected by the foreclosure crisis. The program meets its goal of rehabilitation and stabilization by buying and redeveloping abandoned and vacant foreclosure houses.
Recipients of NSP grants are required to use about 25 percent of the money allocated for the acquisition, redevelopment and rehabilitation of Kentucky foreclosure houses that will then be sold to individuals and families whose earnings are not more than 50 percent of the median income in their area.
