Affordable Housing in Pennsylvania Gets a Boost

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh has allocated $24.2 million for affordable housing in 2007.

The donation includes $17.15 million for the Affordable Housing Program, $7.64 million for the First Front Door lower-income home ownership grants program - in order to everyone to have the chance to qualify for various mortgages - and $1 million for a pilot housing rehabilitation grants program.

With assets of $77.4 billion, FHLBank Pittsburgh, one of 12 government-sponsored enterprise created by Congress in 1932 to provide a steady stream of low-cost housing finance, serves 334 financial institution members across Delaware, Pennsylvania and the West Virginia housing markets.

FHLBank’s 2007A AHP funding round is now open and applications from project developers are being taken until March 29.

The 2007B funding round will open in August and close on September 27. Since 1990, the AHP has distributed approximately $125 million in grants for the construction or rehabilitation of more than 22,000 rental and owner-occupied affordable housing units.

The First Front Door program (formerly the Home Buyer Equity Fund) has been available to lower-income first-time home buyers since 1997. The program provides $3 in grant money for every $1 contributed by qualifying home buyers to help meet down payment and closing costs. The program takes applications on a rolling basis through participating FHLBank financial institution members in local communities. The $7.64 million applied to First Front Door in 2007 includes about $1.6 million carried over from 2006.