Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman's Statement In Support of President Obama's Announcement of Additional Assistance for Hardest-Hit Housing

Today, President Obama announced a new program that will help homeowners in struggling housing markets where home prices have fallen more than 20% from their highest point. Funds to help struggling homeowners will be administered through housing finance agencies and will be used with local challenges in mind. In response to this announcement, Florida Democratic Party spokesman Karen Thurman released the following statement:

"President Obama's announcement is welcome news for Florida's homeowners who are still struggling to make ends meet. It is also further evidence that the President and Democratic Leaders are serious about helping the middle class and will not rest until the American Dream is restored. This program is an important step towards stabilizing Florida's housing markets and helping middle class families stay afloat in these difficult times. I want to thank President Obama for his continued attention to the challenges facing Florida's families. And I call on Republicans in Congress to stop playing politics and blocking progress at every turn, and instead start working with Democrats to get our economy back on track."

The program will help in the following areas:

1. Unemployed borrowers

2. "Underwater" borrowers-those who owe more on their home than their home is worth.

3. Borrowers with second liens-borrowers who have a home equity line of credit on their home and problems associated with that.

This new program will help housing finance agencies to take new steps in struggling housing markets to help homeowners stay afloat. Under this new initiative, $1.5 billion of funds made available under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) will be used to improve and expand the work of state and local Housing Finance Agencies (HFA)s. The new initiative will apply to states where housing prices have dropped by 20% or more. This program will be administered with the utmost regard for transparency and accountability and in accordance with existing EESA funding requirements.