“President Bush is committed to helping Americans achieve the American dream of homeownership,” said Veneman. “The hard work and great partnerships between USDA, participating families and affordable housing developers are making a difference in our rural communities.”

   Veneman visited the Rafael Lopez family home, a part of the Buena Vista 24-townhouse unit and participated in the groundbreaking of the Las Rosas 16-townhouse unit—both housing developments used USDA Rural Development funding through the Section 502 single family loan program (Section 502 loans are primarily used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas).

   USDA is lowering fees and working to increase the number of minority lenders to reduce the barriers to minority homeownership as well as promoting the availability of credit counseling and homeownership education. Veneman announced a Technical Supervisory Assistance Grant for $145,000 to Rural LISC, a non-profit housing organization, who is using these funds to help Community Development Corporations such as the Alliance for Better Housing in Kennett Square to provide homeownership training and credit counseling for potential Las Rosas homeowners.

   The President’s housing agenda includes providing down payment assistance through the American Dream Down payment Initiative, increasing the supply of affordable homes through the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, making a difference in the lives of low-income homebuyers with the Zero-Down payment Initiative; open government programs to faith-based and other grassroots organizations and increasing home-buying education and counseling. President Bush also issued American’s Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. USDA Rural Development programs are an important part of this initiative, which has invested over $10.2 billion in the last three years to help 138,000 families own their own home.

   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 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.

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