Durbin: $118 Million in Funding for Illinois Will Help Revitalize Neighborhoods That Were Hit Hardest by Economic Crisis
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – 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 $118,174,500 in funding to support efforts to revitalize neighborhoods that were hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Today’s funding was awarded through Phase 1 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.
“While our national economy has recovered from the global recession that began in 2007, communities across America are still struggling to reestablish themselves after the foreclosure crisis forced families out of their homes,” said Durbin. “Today’s funding will support the important work that agencies, like the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Cook County Land Bank, are doing to bring stability back to neighborhoods that badly need it.”
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 is one of 18 states that will be receiving a total of $1 billion funding under today’s announcement. The additional $1 billion that Congress appropriated will be awarded at a later date during Phase 2.