Kilili: Affordable housing program opportunities becoming accessible

Affordable housing programs opportunities are becoming more accessible in the Marianas, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) over the weekend.

Sablan said in his e-kilili newsletter that with Wednesday’s Memorandum of Understanding signing between the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development and Northern Marianas Housing Corp. for the USDA’s Single Faily Housing Guaranteed Loan Program, prospective homeowners in the Marianas will be eligible for mortgages backed by the USDA.

He said the USDA’s Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program in the Marianas was terminated a decade ago, but he has been encouraging the USDA to provide NMHC a second chance.

The delegate said the parties have now come to agreement.

Officials from the USDA Rural Development led by Rural Housing administrator Joaquin Altoro and Rural Housing Service chief of staff Yvonne Hsu and team state director Chris Kanazawa, area director Joseph Diego, and Community programs specialist Tony Barcinas joined Sablan and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and NMHC board officials and staff during the MOU signing.

The amended MOU replaces any prior MOUs executed by RHS and NMHC as far back as March 26, 1979. The purpose is to establish and define set roles for RHS and MHC with respect to the making, guaranteeing, and servicing of RHS single-family housing loans and grants to owners and lessees of CNMI lands.

Under the MOU, RHS is prepared to make such loans and grants, while NMHC seeks to facilitate and support the provision of USDA housing assistance programs in the CNMI.

Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan