Capps Announces Additional Economic Recovery Funding to Help Seniors and Address the Housing Crisis
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Providing over $9 Million for Senior Nutrition Programs and $145 Million for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 23, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Congresswoman Lois Capps today announced that California will receive additional economy recovery funds, including $9,827,504 for senior nutrition programs and $145,000,000 for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NPS).
“This is more good news for Californians hit hard by the downturn in the economy,” said Capps. “Among those who have been hurt the most by the worsening economy are our seniors who are often on a fixed income, may have seen their retirement funds decline, and yet face huge increases in their cost of living. This funding for senior nutrition programs will help those organizations who serve our most vulnerable seniors and ensure that even in these tough financial times the elderly won’t go hungry.”
The funding for senior nutrition programs is part of a nationwide investment of $100,000,000 in Recovery Act funding to provide meals to tens of thousands of low-income older Americans in need. These funds will assist communities and the national aging services network hit hard by rising food costs at a time when demand for services is increasing due to the economic downturn and the growing number of older adults. The funds will provide meals to seniors in need of food, restore nutrition services that have been cut and restore positions which may have been eliminated or reduced. This financial support is expected to provide nearly 14 million meals nationwide.
Capps continued, “I am also pleased that our recovery package is providing funding to help California communities devastated by the housing crisis. While this is a national problem that is at the heart of many of our financial woes, California’s housing market has been the epicenter of this crisis and our communities have suffered a great deal throughout this downturn. This funding will help local governments in hard-hit communities maintain homes that have been foreclosed on to keep these homes from becoming blights that harm the rest of the neighborhood until they can be resold. This will help protect the neighbors of foreclosed properties whose homes have lost value through no fault of their own and provide more affordable housing in a community.”
The funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program was authorized under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and provides, in stages, a total of $3.92 billion for the acquisition and rehabilitation of vacant, foreclosed homes that have been taken into possession by mortgage lenders. The State of California will use the funds to assist communities with large concentrations of high cost lending and foreclosures in order to help mitigate the negative effects that vacant and foreclosed homes have on surrounding neighborhoods. The homes rehabilitated under the program will be resold to pre-counseled homebuyers for no more than 120 percent of the Area Median Income. Also, 25 percent of the NSP foreclosed homes will be restricted to homeowners whose income is less than the 50% of Area Median Income, to help create more affordable housing
