FEDERAL AND LOCAL PARTNERS SIGN AGREEMENT IN TAMPA TO INCREASE MINORITY HOMEOWNERSHIP

TAMPA - On Saturday, June 26, 2004, at a ceremony held at the Wilbert Davis Boys and Girls Club located in
Tampa's Belmont Heights Estates, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Tampa Field Office,
the City of Tampa, the Tampa Housing Authority, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners and other partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote homeownership.

In June 2002, President George W. Bush announced an ambitious plan to help close the homeownership gap by increasing minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. He challenged the public and private sectors to work together to reach or exceed that goal. The result is the creation of an unprecedented public/private
partnership to tear down barriers to minority homeownership and working to help millions of minority families reap
the economic benefits of homeownership.

Nationally, there are a number of organizations who bring together the individual strengths of government, the real estate and mortgage finance industry, affordable housing groups and advocacy organizations.

Working together, partners identified four key areas they should focus on to increase minority homeownership, and made specific commitments to take action in one or more Pathways to Homeownership:

• homeownership education and housing counseling;
• increasing the supply of affordable homes;
• giving families new options for upfront funds like the downpayment; and
• improving mortgage lending by increasing funds for affordable loans and redoubling efforts to root out illegal discrimination.

Through this memorandum of understanding, HUD and its local partners are commemorating our unified acceptance
of the President's challenge to increase the minority nationwide homeowner rate by 5.5 million by 2010.

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