Freddie Mac today announced $10.5 million in grants

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) today announced $10.5 million in grants to housing counseling organizations to use for their outreach, education and foreclosure prevention efforts to help borrowers. Freddie Mac is one of the nation's largest investors in residential mortgages.

The grants will enable the non-profit organizations to add and train staff, pay operational expenses and support outreach campaigns to borrowers having difficulty making their mortgage payments, especially subprime borrowers. The organizations were selected for their abilities to educate and advise borrowers about their foreclosure options and/or help them obtain workouts from their mortgage servicers.

The largest share of the funds will be administered through the HOPE NOW Alliance in grants totaling more than $6 million. Of that amount, approximately two-thirds is allocated for HOPE NOW's counseling, operations and outreach, with the remaining funds earmarked for organizations including Enterprise Community Partners, NeighborWorks America, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and HomeFree USA.

“Although the challenges facing today's housing market go beyond any one company's ability to resolve, Freddie Mac is working with the non-profit organizations who are in the trenches to make a real difference for many of America's borrowers. By putting another piece of that plan into place, today's announcement underscores how Freddie Mac's mission to expand homeownership includes helping delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure whenever possible,” said Richard F. Syron, CEO and Chairman of Freddie Mac.

The $10.5 million in funding disbursements is the result of the November settlement between OFHEO and former Freddie Mac CEO Leland Brendsel.

Recipients and the amount of their grants are:

HOPE NOW Alliance, $6.385 million
Center for Responsible Lending, $1 million
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, $500,000
Don't Borrow Trouble, $500,000
National Council of La Raza, $300,000
National Fair Housing Alliance, $300,000
National Urban League, $300,000
Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Atlanta, $200,000
Consumer Credit Counseling Services of San Francisco, $200,000
ACORN, $200,000
National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, $150,000
One Economy, $125,000
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), $100,000
National Community Reinvestment Coalition, $100,000
Centro de Gestion Unica para Vivienda Propia, $100,000
Mortgage Credit Center, $40,000
Today's announcement builds on Freddie Mac's efforts to help distressed borrowers by fostering mortgage workouts that enable them to avoid foreclosure. Last year, because of Freddie Mac and the mortgage servicers it works with, almost 50,000 families that had run into financial trouble were able to keep their homes. Freddie Mac currently is working out roughly 1,000 loans per week – where 90 percent of the affected families keep their homes.


Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.