CUOMO ANNOUNCES $5 MILLION IN HUD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT LOANS TO LOUISVILLE, KY, TO INCREASE HOMEOWNERSHIP AND JOBS

The loan guarantee assistance will create homeownership opportunities for 450 families and provide skills development and job training for unemployed residents.

"The best way to bring a new prosperity to our cities and their people is to create jobs and expand homeownership," Cuomo said. "The Clinton Administration's wise investment in job creation and homeownership will help transform our cities, improve lives and strengthen our economy."

"These funds supply the missing piece in our efforts to revitalize the Park DuValle neighborhood," Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said. "With this loan guarantee, we will be able to build single-family homes and provide families with the kind of housing and pride in ownership that can turn a neighborhood around."

HUD's Economic Development Loan Guarantee Fund provides communities with a source of financing for job creation, housing rehabilitation, and construction of public facilities and large-scale development projects. The majority of jobs created by each project are available to people with low and moderate incomes.

The loan guarantees, also known as the Section 108 program, save communities money by cutting the interest rate they would have been charged on loans from commercial lenders. The guarantees make loans more readily available and often attract other sources of funding from local and state governments, non-profits and the private sector to complete financing for major job creation activities.

Today's $5 million guarantee will be used with $4.5 million in HUD Homeownership Zone grant funds, and is part of $160 million in public-private funds for the Park DuValle revitalization project.