$151 Million In Federal In Federal Funding Will Help Stabilize Illinois Communities Hit Hardest By Foreclosure Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 21, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today praised the announcement by the U.S. Department of Treasury that the State of Illinois has been awarded $151,299,560 in funding to support efforts to revitalize neighborhoods that were hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Today’s funding was awarded through Phase 2 of the Hardest Hit Fund, for which Congress recently appropriated a total of $2 billion. Durbin is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and advocated for boosting funding to this program.

“The foreclosure crisis meant more than just declining property values – it also damaged neighborhood spirit. Almost ten years later, our national economy has rebounded, but many communities across America are still struggling to recover from those losses,” Durbin said. “This funding is an investment in the future of those communities, and in the Illinois families who call them home.”

The Hardest Hit Fund was established in February 2010 to provide targeted aid to families in states hit hard by the economic and housing market downturn. The Hardest Hit Fund provides funding for state housing finance agencies to develop locally-tailored foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization solutions in areas that have been hard hit by home price declines and high unemployment. Illinois also received an additional $118,174,500 in funding during Phase 1 of the program, which Durbin announced in February, bringing the state’s total award amount to $269,474,060 of the $2 billion recently appropriated by Congress. Since the program was founded in 2010, Illinois has received more than $715 million through the Hardest Hit Fund.