More than 180 Los Angeles-area applicants have been awarded grants for down payments on homes as part of a partnership between Wells Fargo & Co. and the national nonprofit group NeighborWorks America, which works to provide people with affordable housing.
(File: Amy Bentley/SWRNN)
Grant funding totaling $4.3 million remains available.
Grants of $30,000 each through the NeighborhoodLIFT program are available to Los Angeles County residents who earn no more than 120 percent of the median income for the area, plan to stay in their home for five years and participate in a buyer education program with a HUD-approved a counselor.
The nonprofit NeighborWorks America worked with the city of Los Angeles and Wells Fargo to create the program and have given out $5.4 million to aspiring home owners, as well as another $1.5 million to after-school, gang- prevention, community health and economic development programs in the city.
“Thanks to Wells Fargo’s generous grant donations and community programs, Angelenos from San Fernando to San Pedro can own their own piece of the city and help to revitalize their neighborhoods,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
John Sotoodeh, Wells Fargo’s Los Angeles region president, added, “While no single program will ever reverse the effects of the country’s foreclosure crisis. We’re proud to continue doing our part to support the recovery by helping promising home-buyers achieve ownership success in a sustainable and responsible way.”
The home-buyer assistance program in the Los Angeles region was first rolled out in 2012 and will expand to the Inland Empire this year.
Through various assistance programs, Wells Fargo has funded $89.9 million in down payments and $11.8 million toward counseling, education and program support in 20 different locations across the country hardest hit by the 2008 housing crash and subsequent financial crisis, according to the bank.
*A story that ran on the CNS wire on Monday, slugged Down Payment, incorrectly stated that a program providing grants for mortgage down-payments was part of a settlement between Wells Fargo and the Department of Justice. According to Wells Fargo, the grants described in the story were part of a philanthropic “NeighborhoodLIFT” program that was started one year ago, while the 2012 Justice Department settlement resulted in the later creation of the similar — but separate — “CityLIFT” program.
This is the updated version of the story.
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