Pending federal budget cuts will impact Utah’s most vulnerable residents, nonprofit housing advocates warned Thursday during a town-hall session attended by representatives of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, both Republicans.
For example, the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s mutual self-help housing program has enabled low-income families in rural Utah to work together to lower costs of their new homes through shared sweat equity. The $37 million program, in existence for 40 years, has been eliminated in the proposed 2012 federal budget.
Instead, a privatized bank-loan program would take its place and would help families making about $48,000 a year, said Brad Bishop, executive director of the Rural Housing Development Corporation. But that program would not work for people who make even less money.
“One of the key ideas in America is to own a home,” said Bishop, who supports restoring funding for the self-help program.
Bishop’s organization caters to workers who earn about $27,000 per year and 96 percent of his low-income \homeowners have survived the foreclosure debacle, he added.
Also at risk in the 2012 budget is $88 million that pays for training HUD-certified mortgage counselors who can intervene on behalf of homeowners facing foreclosure.
Kim Datwyler, executive director of the Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corp., said 32,000 Utahns went through foreclosure last year — a number that could rise to 40,000 this year.
“We rank fourth in the nation now,” with one in 29homeowners facing home loss, Datwyler said. “It’s not an honor, it’s a concern.”
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