USDA AND HUD ANNOUNCE BORDER REGION INITIATIVE

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2003—Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez today signed a Memorandum of Agreement establishing a cooperative effort to improve housing and economic conditions in the Southwest border region of the United States.

“This is an important step in the Bush Administration’s ongoing efforts to overcome the homeownership gap for minorities,” said Veneman. “Homeownership creates more stable, prosperous communities, higher standards of living, and a stronger society for us all.”

“Today’s agreement between HUD and USDA is another step by the Bush Administration toward helping more families, particularly minorities, reach the American Dream of homeownership,” said Martinez. “As we celebrate National Homeownership Month we must remember that nearly 70 percent of all American households are homeowners but less than half of African-American and Hispanic families own their own homes. Through homeownership we strengthen families and communities.”

The USDA/HUD agreement was signed during the National Rural Housing Summit, a conference held by USDA Rural Development. The Summit was called to advance President Bush’s Minority Homeownership Initiative, which has established the goal of helping 5.5 million minority families achieve homeownership by the year 2010.

Under the agreement between USDA and HUD, the two departments will work to coordinate the delivery of their programs and services to residents of the border region, including the communities called Colonias, to improve access to assistance and achieve maximum program effectiveness. Cooperation may include cross-marketing of programs, cross-training of staff, and jointly preparing educational materials. Personnel from both departments will work together on one or more pilot projects to evaluate whether improved cooperation can materially improve conditions in the Colonias and areas heavily populated by very low-income migrant farmworkers.

Other joint activities between USDA and HUD will include exchanging information on housing, community, and economic conditions, and working together on research projects involving the Southwest border region.

The Minority Homeownership Initiative is part of the Bush housing agenda, which seeks to help dismantle barriers to homeownership by providing down payment assistance, increasing the supply of affordable homes, increasing support for self-help homeownership programs, and simplifying the home buying process as well as increasing education.

USDA Rural Development is working to double the number of minority participants in its self-help housing programs. USDA has pledged to increase minority participation by an additional 10 percent to help reach the President’s goal. As of June 2003, USDA Single Family Housing programs in fiscal year 2003 have provided very-low to moderate income rural Americans more than $1.8 billion for 18,410 homeownership loan guarantees, and more than $504 million for 6,799 direct home loans. These investments will assist in the creation of nearly 25,000 construction jobs.

In addition USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas C. Dorr and Donald Powell, Chairman of the FDIC, together signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a working relationship between the two entities. Under the agreement, FDIC will help train USDA employees to deliver a course called “Money Smart” to housing applicants. “Money Smart” is a course designed to help adults outside the financial mainstream enhance their skills in handling money, create positive banking relationships and ultimately achieve homeownership.

USDA Rural Development's mission is to deliver programs in a way that will support increasing economic opportunity and improve the quality of life of rural residents. As a venture capital entity, Rural Development provides equity, liquidity, and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA's web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov

#