The City of Bradenton Housing and Community Development Division recently received more than $71,000 in State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funding for the 2011-2012 program year.
With funding coming from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, the city has approximately $20,000 available for down payments and approximately $51,358 available for housing rehabilitation assistance for persons earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. For example, the income must not exceed $36,300 for a family of one and $68,450 for a family of eight.
"The SHIP program provides funds to local governments as an incentive to create partnerships that produce and preserve affordable homeownership and multifamily housing," says Lesa Livingston, manager of the City of Bradenton Housing and Community Development Division. "Such funding is necessary as it was designed to provide very low, low- and moderate-income families with assistance to purchase a home, money to repair or replace a home and many other types of housing assistance."
The City of Bradenton has been participating in SHIP funding since 1992 while also participating in the Florida Hardest Hit Fund (HHF) program. Having received more than 50 applications for the program, the federal government has allocated funding to help pay the mortgages of qualified unemployed homeowners through the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance and Mortgage Loan Reinstatement programs. Through these programs, up to $12,000 will be provided to pay monthly mortgage and escrow mortgage-related expenses for up to 6 months and provide $6,000 to make qualified homeowner's past-due mortgage current.
"Currently, over 50 organizations have signed Florida Housing's contract to be HHF Advisory Agencies," says Livingston. "About 20 of these groups are local government SHIP offices and Florida Housing expects to soon receive signed contracts from almost 20 more SHIP offices."
The city will accept applications for the housing programs Sept. 15 to Sept. 29.
Writer: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain
Source: Lesa Livingston, City of Bradenton
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