National Collaboration Turns Foreclosures Into Opportunities

Abandoned Properties Converted into New Housing in 100 Localities

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented move,
leaders from the nonprofit sector, philanthropic community, financial industry
and government have joined forces in creating a highly innovative and
effective approach to reclaim neighborhoods devastated by high concentrations
of foreclosed and abandoned property.

The National Community Stabilization Trust ("Stabilization Trust"), a new
nonprofit organization, will help re-knit the fabric of neighborhoods torn
apart by the high levels of foreclosed and abandoned property, property
disinvestment, plummeting housing prices, and low resident confidence. This
is being accomplished by providing local government and local housing
providers with two critical services that are currently missing to effectively
stabilize neighborhoods: easy access to foreclosed properties and access to
flexible financing to renovate these properties.

The Stabilization Trust will facilitate the transfer of foreclosed property
from the many financial institutions that own or manage these properties to
locally designated community housing providers who will renovate the housing
for new homeowners and renters. This effort will help speed use of $6 billion
in new federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program resources that the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making available to
localities and public-private partnerships. Under the Stabilization Trust's
popular First Look program, cities and counties can get access to foreclosed
homes before they are made available to the general market, resulting in a
more predictable and cost effective neighborhood revitalization strategy.

"Communities need a straight-forward and streamlined way to acquire foreclosed
and abandoned homes," said Craig Nickerson, president of the National
Community Stabilization Trust. "The Stabilization Trust's First Look program
puts the local housing providers in the driver's seat, able to strategically
decide which properties are most important to their neighborhood
revitalization plans."

More than 100 hard hit communities in 35 states across the country have
already signed up for this free service from the Stabilization Trust, which is
now making its services available to localities nationwide and putting
thousands of properties in the hands of local housing providers.

Six leading nonprofit organizations - Enterprise Community Partners, Housing
Partnership Network, Local Initiative Support Corporation, the National Urban
League, National Council of La Raza, and NeighborWorks America - serve as the
founding sponsors of the Stabilization Trust. They came together last year to
form the new organization in the wake of the current housing crisis. Funding
from these organizations and from philanthropic leaders, including the
MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and Heron
Foundation, have helped capitalize the nationwide operation.

Many of the nation's major financial institutions are working with the
Stabilization Trust to convey foreclosed property, including Bank of America,
Citi, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GMAC, JP Morgan Chase, Nationstar, Saxon, Wells
Fargo and others.

"Wells Fargo strongly believes in collaborative efforts to rebuild local
housing markets", said Mary Coffin, executive vice president of Wells Fargo
Home Mortgage Servicing. "We want to turn houses back into homes, and the
streamlined Stabilization Trust approach is helping us increase the volume of
property transfers to community housing leaders."

With more than 100,000 properties falling into foreclosure every month,
federal resources will not suffice. As a result, the Stabilization Trust is
also providing access to financing to tackle the large-scale foreclosure
crisis by helping local communities link their HUD Neighborhood Stabilization
Program funding to much-needed private capital. By using a $50 million
low-interest line of credit from the Ford Foundation, the Stabilization Trust
will be able to increase access to private capital for property acquisition,
renovation and short-term rental housing. Over the next year, the
Stabilization Trust hopes to leverage over $1 billion in additional lending
capital to foster property renovation and community revitalization.

Last winter and spring, this efficient approach to access foreclosed property
was piloted in a handful of test markets, including Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The successful test run resulted in several hundred foreclosed properties in
target markets being purchased by local housing providers at affordable
prices.

"A core component of our fight against foreclosures in Minneapolis has been
the involvement of the National Community Stabilization Trust," Minneapolis
Mayor R.T. Rybak said. "With their help, we are revitalizing foreclosed
homes, putting them into the hands of stable homeowners, and overcoming the
challenges caused by the current housing crisis."

"Bringing together nonprofits, government and the private sector, we have
built a powerful public-private partnership to revitalize communities and
homes undermined by mortgage defaults and foreclosure," said Tom Bledsoe,
board chair of the National Community Stabilization Trust and CEO of the
Housing Partnership Network. "We're ready to serve communities across the
nation - urban and rural, large and small - to provide them ready access to
foreclosed property and flexible financing - the tools necessary to fuel a
faster recovery."

National Community Stabilization Trust Collaboration

Sponsors
Enterprise Community Partners
Housing Partnership Network
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Urban League
NeighborWorks America

Financial Institutions
Bank of America
Chase
Citi
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
GMAC
Nationstar
Saxon
Wells Fargo

Foundations
Ford Foundation
Heron Foundation
Open Society Institute
MacArthur Foundation

National Community Stabilization Trust is a nonprofit organization that
facilitates the transfer of foreclosed and abandoned properties from financial
institutions nationwide to local housing organizations, and provides access to
financing in order to promote productive property reuse and neighborhood
stability. In collaboration with state and local governments, the
Stabilization Trust builds local capacity to effectively acquire, manage,
rehab and sell foreclosed property to ensure homeownership and rental housing
are available to low- and moderate-income families. Visit
www.stabilizationtrust.com to learn more about the National Community
Stabilization Trust.

SOURCE National Community Stabilization Trust

Craig Nickerson, cnickerson@stabilizationtrust.com, or Danny Gardner,
dgardner@stabilizationtrust.com, both of National Community Stabilization
Trust, +1-202-552-7358