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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 1701y. National Homeownership Foundation
(a) Creation; purpose; articles of incorporation and charter;
reservation of right to alter or amend charter; term; principal
office; administration as charitable and educational foundation;
compensation of officers and employees; contract authority;
donations and grants; payment of principal and interest on
borrowings
(1) There is hereby created a body corporate to be known as the
"National Homeownership Foundation" (hereinafter referred to as the
"Foundation") to carry out a continuing program of encouraging
private and public organizations at the national, community, and
neighborhood levels to provide increased homeownership and housing
opportunities in urban and rural areas for lower income families
through such means as -
(A) encouraging the investment in, and sponsoring of, housing
for lower income families;
(B) encouraging the establishment of programs of assistance and
counseling to lower income families to enable them better to
achieve and afford adequate housing;
(C) providing a broad range of technical assistance through
publications and advisory services to public and private
organizations which are carrying out, or are desirous of carrying
out, programs to expand homeownership and housing opportunities
for lower income families; and
(D) providing grants and loans to public and private
organizations carrying out homeownership and housing opportunity
programs for lower income families to help cover some of the
expenses of such programs.
(2) The Foundation shall be deemed to be a corporation without
members organized and established under the provisions of the
District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act, with all the
rights, powers, and responsibilities thereof except as limited by
this section and any amendments thereto. This section shall
constitute the articles of incorporation and charter of the
Foundation, which shall not be an agency or instrumentality of the
United States Government. The Congress expressly reserves the
exclusive right to alter or amend this charter. The Foundation
shall have succession until dissolved by Act of Congress. The
Foundation shall maintain its principal office in the District of
Columbia.
(3) No part of the net earnings of the Foundation shall inure to
the benefit of any private person, and no substantial part of its
activities shall be devoted to attempting to influence legislation.
The Foundation shall not participate or intervene in any political
campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office. The
Foundation shall be operated and administered at all times as a
charitable and educational foundation.
(4) No employee or officer of the Foundation shall receive
compensation in excess of that received by or hereafter prescribed
by law for heads of executive departments.
(5) The Foundation shall make maximum use of existing public and
private agencies and programs, and in carrying out its functions
the Foundation is authorized to contract with individuals, private
corporations, organizations, and associations, and with agencies of
the Federal, State, and local governments.
(6) The Foundation is authorized to receive donations and grants
from individuals and from public and private organizations,
foundations, and agencies.
(7) The Foundation may use only donated funds, or funds derived
from payment of interest on loans made by it, for the principal and
interest payments on any borrowings.
(b) Board of Directors; appointment of members; Chairman; terms of
office; reappointment; compensation and travel expenses;
Executive Director and other officers; vacancies; by-laws
(1) The Foundation shall have a Board of Directors consisting of
eighteen members, fifteen of whom shall be appointed by the
President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the
Senate. The other three members shall be, ex officio, the Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Agriculture, and
the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. The President
shall appoint one of the fifteen appointed members to serve as
Chairman of the Board during his term of office as a member.
(2) Within thirty days after August 1, 1968, the President shall
appoint the fifteen appointed members of the Board. Not more than
five of such members shall, at the time of their appointment, be
serving full time as officers or employees of the Federal
Government, or as officers or employees of any State or local
government. Each appointed member of the Board shall hold office
for a term of three years, except that (A) any member appointed to
fill a vacancy prior to the expiration of the term for which his
predecessor was appointed shall be appointed for the remainder of
such term, and (B) the terms of the members first taking office
shall expire, as designated by the President at the time of
appointment, five at the end of the first year, five at the end of
the second year, and five at the end of the third year after the
date of appointment. Members of the Board, however appointed, shall
be eligible for reappointment, but at no time shall there be more
than five members of the Board who at the time of their appointment
or reappointment were full-time officers or employees of the
Federal Government or of any State or local government.
(3) Appointed members of the Board who are not employees of the
Federal Government, while attending meetings or conferences of the
Board or otherwise serving on business of the Board, shall be
entitled to receive compensation at rates fixed by the President,
but not exceeding $100 per day, including travel time, and while so
serving away from their homes or regular places of business they
may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of
subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of title 5 for persons
in the Government service employed intermittently.
(4) The Board shall appoint an Executive Director of the
Foundation. The Executive Director shall be the chief executive
officer of the Foundation and shall serve at the pleasure of the
Board, and all other executive officers and employees of the Board
shall be responsible to him. The Board shall also cause to be
appointed a secretary, a treasurer, and such other officers as may
be necessary to conduct properly the business of the Foundation,
and shall provide for filling vacancies in such offices.
(5) The Board shall adopt bylaws for the Foundation which shall
be made available for public inspection upon request.
(c) Functions; programs to expand homeownership and housing
opportunities for lower income families; fees for assistance or
services
(1) The Foundation shall assist public and private organizations,
at their request, in initiating, developing, and conducting
programs to expand homeownership and housing opportunities for
lower income families. To provide such assistance and to carry out
the purposes of this section, the Foundation is authorized to -
(A) carry out a continuing program of encouraging private and
public organizations at the national, community, and neighborhood
levels in the establishment of such programs;
(B) assist in the formation of organizations the purpose of
which is the development and carrying out of such programs,
including the establishment of local development funds for
financing housing for lower income families through the pooling
of moneys from private sources;
(C) identify and arrange for the technical and managerial
assistance and personnel needed for the successful operation of
such programs by public and private organizations;
(D) assist public and private organizations in obtaining the
mortgage financing, insurance, and other requirements or aids
necessary for conducting programs of housing construction,
rehabilitation, or improvement for lower income families;
(E) arrange for, or provide on a limited basis, training for
persons in the skills needed in administering programs of
homeownership and housing opportunity for lower income families;
(F) encourage research and innovation, and collect and make
available such information as may be desirable to further the
purposes of this section, including but not limited to such
activities as the sponsoring of seminars, conferences, and
meetings and the establishment of a continuing information
program to acquaint lower income families with the means they can
use to improve the quality of their housing and the homeownership
and housing opportunities available to them;
(G) assist private and public organizations in establishing, in
connection with their homeownership and housing opportunity
programs for lower income families, counseling and similar
activities designed to advise lower income families of the means
available to better themselves economically through job training
and manpower development programs; and
(H) perform other similar services in order to further the
purposes of this section.
(2) The Foundation may, if it deems it appropriate, charge a
reasonable fee for any assistance or service provided under this
subsection.
(d) Grants and loans to public or private organizations;
eligibility; encouragement of cooperation between organizations
and neighborhoods and communities
(1) In order to assist public and private organizations which are
carrying out homeownership and housing opportunity programs for
lower income families to fill unmet needs, initiate exceptional
programs, and experiment with new approaches and programs, the
Foundation is authorized, subject to such terms and conditions as
it may prescribe, to make grants and loans to such organizations to
help defray the following expenses:
(A) organizational and administrative expenses incurred in
commencing the operation of a program, or in expanding an
existing program, to the extent that the activities are related
to providing homeownership and housing opportunities for lower
income families;
(B) necessary preconstruction costs incurred for architectural
assistance, land options, application fees, and similar items;
and
(C) the cost of carrying out programs providing counseling or
similar services to lower income families for whom housing is
being provided, in order to enable those families better to
achieve and afford adequate housing, in such matters as home
management, budget management, and home maintenance.
(2) In order to be eligible for a grant or loan under this
subsection, the organization seeking such assistance shall
demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Foundation that the funds
requested are not otherwise available from Federal sources:
Provided, That a grant or loan under this subsection may be
provided to help cover that portion of the cost of an eligible
activity not covered by Federal funds.
(3) The Foundation shall encourage cooperation between public and
private organizations carrying out programs of homeownership and
housing opportunity for lower income families and the neighborhoods
and communities affected by such programs. To help assure such
cooperation and in order to coordinate, to the maximum extent
feasible, any construction or rehabilitation activities with the
development goals of the neighborhood or community affected, no
application for a loan or grant under this subsection shall be
considered unless such application has been submitted to the
governing body of the community affected, or to such other entity
of local government as may be designated by the governing body, for
such recommendations as the local governing body or its designee
may desire to make. Any recommendations so made shall be given
careful consideration by the Foundation before taking final action
on any such application. If, upon the expiration of thirty days
after any such application has been submitted to such governing
body or its designee, such body or designee fails to provide such
recommendations, the application may be considered without the
benefit of such recommendations.
(e) Coordination of activities and consultation with Department of
Housing and Urban Development and other Federal departments and
agencies
The Foundation shall coordinate its activities and consult with
the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other Federal
departments and agencies engaged in providing homeownership and
housing opportunities for lower income families.
(f) Annual report to the President and the Congress; contents
(1) Not later than one hundred and twenty days after the close of
each fiscal year, the Foundation shall prepare and submit to the
President and to the Congress a full report of its activities
during such year. Such report shall include an account of the
Foundation's experiences with the efforts of private and public
organizations to expand homeownership and housing opportunities for
lower income families, together with such recommendations as it
deems appropriate.
(2) Whenever in its judgement the general unavailability of
mortgage funds is sufficiently serious to deter the Foundation from
carrying out its objective of expanding homeownership and housing
opportunities for lower income families, the Foundation shall, in
its annual report or in a separate report to the President and the
Congress, state its findings and make such recommendations for
alternate means of financing housing for such families as it deems
appropriate.
(g) Audit of financial transaction; access to records; report of
audit; contents of report
(1) The financial transactions of the Foundation shall be audited
by the General Accounting Office in accordance with the principles
and procedures applicable to commercial corporate transactions and
under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the
Comptroller General of the United States. The representatives of
the General Accounting Office shall have access to all books,
accounts, financial records, reports, files, and all other papers,
things, or property belonging to or in use by the Foundation and
necessary to facilitate the audit, and they shall be afforded full
facilities for verifying transactions with the balances or
securities held by depositories, fiscal agents, and custodians. The
audit shall cover the fiscal year corresponding to that of the
United States Government.
(2) A report of each such audit shall be made by the Comptroller
General to the Congress not later than six and one-half months
following the close of the last year covered by such audit. The
report shall set forth the scope of the audit and shall include a
statement of assets and liabilities, capital, and surplus or
deficit; a statement of sources and application of funds; and such
comments and information as may be deemed necessary to keep the
Congress informed of the operations and financial condition of the
Foundation, together with such recommendations with respect thereto
as the Comptroller General may deem advisable. The report shall
also show specifically any program, expenditure, or other financial
transaction or undertaking, observed in the course of the audit,
which, in the opinion of the Comptroller General, has been carried
on or made without authority of law. A copy of each report shall be
furnished to the President and to the Foundation at the time
submitted to the Congress.
(h) Deposit of funds of Foundation
Funds of the Foundation shall be deposited, to the extent
practicable, in accounts with financial institutions which are
actively engaged in making loans or are otherwise carrying on
activities in furtherance of homeownership and housing
opportunities for lower income families.
(i) Authorization of appropriations
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Foundation not to
exceed $10,000,000 to carry out the purposes of this section.
Appropriations made hereunder shall remain available until
expended.
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