Home Stretch and the Neighborhood Stabilization Plan (NSP)

As many of our partner organizations are working with clients that will be taking advantage of the NSP program to assist them with their home purchase, I thought I'd forward along some information that might help clarify some of the misconceptions regarding the education requirement of the NSP program:

Participants in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) are required to complete 8 hours of pre-purchase education and counseling from a HUD-Approved Counseling Agency. While Home Stretch is the state of Minnesota's premiere pre-purchase education program... NOT all Home Stretch providers are approved HUD counseling agencies.

If you are a homeowner looking to use the NSP dollars, or if you're a real-estate professional working with future homeowners that will be using the NSP program... please check the Center's website here for a complete list of the HUD-Approved Counseling Agencies, as well as how to tell if a given Home Stretch workshop is NSP Approved. This will save you or your clients the hassle of having to RE-TAKE the workshop. (Yes, sadly, it has happened).

Looking to the future... the The Center has applied for a waiver that would allow additional Home Stretch providers to be "Approved" NSP Education providers. The Center continues to work with MN Housing on this waiver and meeting the conditions set forth by HUD. EVEN if the waiver is approved, based on the conditions of established by HUD not all Home Stretch providers will be approved, and, in addition, there is no guarantee the waiver will be approved.

Until further notice from the Center, or MN Housing, only the agencies listed at the Center's website here meet the NSP education/counseling requirement.

Coming Home: Strib Highlights Home Stretch

An article by Lynn Underwood in this past Sunday's Star Tribune covered the story of the Roggenbuck family, who purchased a previously-foreclosed home through Bremer Bank using Native American Homeownership Initiative funds and assistance from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency - and the knowledge they received from taking the Home Stretch workshop.

The complete article is here.

Would you like to know more about the Home Stretch program? For a complete overview as well as additional information about the families who have participated, the Center has made the 2007-2008 Home Stretch Program Report available on its website here.

If you are a homeowner interested in purchasing your first home in Minnesota... Home Stretch is the place to start! Learn - start to finish - everything that is involved in becoming a homeowner at the Home Stretch Workshop. Then see if you qualify for any down-payment assistance programs, first-time buyer programs or community recovery (foreclosure recovery) programs - like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program - by speaking with a Home Stretch Counselor. For more information, click here.