August 2009 —

Six municipal and county governments in suburbs around Washington D.C. formed the Metropolitan Washington Area Consortium to collaboratively pursue ARRA’s funding opportunity for the second round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments took the lead in developing the $33.9 million joint application. The proposal would combine a new, regional-scale revolving loan fund to help redevelop targeted foreclosed properties for affordable homeownership with local-level flexibility in operating homebuyer assistance programs and running initiatives to acquire and rehab select foreclosed properties as affordable rental units.
In response to ARRA’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2), six suburban jurisdictions of the metropolitan Washington D.C. region voluntarily came together as the Metropolitan Washington Area Consortium in late May 2009 to craft a joint application. Led by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), the consortium consists of the cities of Alexandria, VA; Bowie, MD; and Gaithersburg, MD and the counties of Fairfax, VA; Prince George's, MD; and Prince William, VA. These six jurisdictions represent roughly half of the region’s foreclosures. Prince George’s and Prince William’s counties, in particular, suffer the most severe foreclosure crises in the region.