By Kimberly Miller | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer |
State lawmakers this week divvied up how $60 million of Florida’s mortgage settlement money will be used to aid struggling homeowners, with more than half flowing to first-time homebuyers for down payment assistance and millions directed at borrowers through legal aid and housing counseling.
Also, Florida’s circuit courts will get $5 million for additional employees to handle foreclosures and to provide “technology solutions” to speed cases through the system.
The money is part of $334 million the state received in the March settlement between attorneys general and the nation’s five largest banks to atone for foreclosure-related abuses. State coffers got $74 million of the payment, which included a 10 percent civil penalty allowed for in the settlement and another $40 million civil penalty added through an agreement between lawmakers and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The lion’s share, $200 million, will be spent on “housing-related purposes” at the discretion of lawmakers who will dole it out during this year’s legislative session.
“Florida seems to be moving in the right direction,” said Andrew Jakabovics, who wrote a report in the fall for the Maryland-based Enterprise Community Partners about how states are spending their settlement money. “The question is, what happens with the rest of it.”
About 531,800 Floridians are in or on the verge of foreclosure, according to information provided during the commission’s meeting.
Some homeowner advocates are critical of parts of the $60 million deal, including the $35 million for a first-time homebuyer program that already receives state funding through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
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