The return of Down Payment Assistance?

Supporters of the controversial seller-funded downpayment assistance program rallied in Washington on Wednesday, calling on Congress to pass a bill that would save DPA from being eliminated Oct. 1. The Oct. 1 ban — signed into law July 30 as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 — has mobilized community activists who say it will disproportionately affect minorities, especially first-time homebuyers and female-headed households. A recent analysis by Washington-based Matrix Global Advisors of government data on FHA-insured loans found that over 40% of African-Americans who receive FHA loans, and 27% of Hispanics, rely on seller-funded DPA. According to Scott Syphax, president and chief executive of DPA pioneer Nehemiah Corporation of America, 90% of the 300,000 families Nehemiah has directly served have not faced foreclosure. While stressing that roughly 40% of Nehemiah clients have been minorities, he called on the administration to right a wrong “by supporting H.R. 6694 and reinstating DPA indefinitely.”