HUD ANNOUNCES $7.6 MILLION FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN ARKANSAS
Bentonville, Conway, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, Jacksonville, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Rogers and Springdale Receive Grants

LITTLE ROCK - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson today announced that 10 Arkansas cities will receive a total of $7,660,734 to support community development, produce more affordable housing and provide downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers.

"This funding will help Arkansas to rebuild its neighborhoods and affordable housing stock," said Jackson.  "By helping communities to improve their infrastructure or assisting families to purchase their first home, HUD is helping improve neighborhoods from the ground up."

The funding announced today includes:

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds;
• HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) funding; and
• American Dream Downpayment Initiative assistance.

Since 1974, HUD's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program has provided more than $120 billion to
state and local governments to target their own community development priorities.  The rehabilitation of affordable housing and the improvement of public facilities have traditionally been the largest uses of CDBG although the
program is also an important catalyst for job growth and business opportunities.  Annual CDBG funds are distributed
to communities according to a statutory formula based on a community's population, poverty, and age of its housing stock, and extent of overcrowded housing.

HOME (HOME Investment Partnerships Program) is the largest federal block grant to state and local governments designed exclusively to produce affordable housing for low-income families. Since 1992, more than 600 communities have completed more than 834,000 affordable housing units, including 352,000 for new homebuyers. In addition, 186,000 tenants have received direct rental assistance.

The American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI) helps first-time homebuyers with the biggest hurdles to homeownership – downpayment and closing costs. The program was created to assist low-income first-time homebuyers in purchasing single-family homes by providing funds for downpayment, closing costs, and rehabilitation carried out in conjunction with the assisted home purchase.  Since the program's inception, ADDI has assisted
nearly 29,000 families to purchase their first home.

Funding in Arkansas is as follows:

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