Silver Lining Initiative

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Fairfax County’s Silver Lining Initiative serves as a three-tiered program designed to address the current housing foreclosure crisis and help to stabilize impacted neighborhoods while also taking advantage of lower cost housing to provide affordable workforce housing. Fairfax County, located in the Washington Metropolitan region of Virginia, has been experiencing a substantial increase in total number of foreclosed homes over the past several years. This has led to a steady drop in property values, an increasing number of vacant homes due to foreclosures, and an increasing number of neglected properties. The initiative’s primary function is to provide assistance for low and moderate income households who are seeking to be first-time homebuyers through shared equity loans. Qualified applicants are eligible to receive a loan, the amount of which is determined by household income and the price of the house, which can then be used to close the gap between an affordable first mortgage and the sales price of a market rate home. Upon sale or transfer of the property, the county will be repaid and will share in the appreciated value. The Silver Lining Initiative also provides loans for purchased, foreclosed homes that require repairs or improvements. A loan is made through the county’s Improvement Loan Program to fund the needed repairs. Lastly, the initiative provides counseling services to distressed homeowners in danger of foreclosure. The focus of the counseling is to connect homeowners with their lenders or other resources, with the ultimate goal of a loan work out. In total, seventy attorneys and thirty paralegals have been recruited to provide six hours of counseling services each to county homeowners. By helping homeowners during this foreclosure crisis, the county is creating a positive opportunity out of an economically damaging situation. These approaches work to stabilize communities by slowing the negative impacts that a large number of foreclosures can have on neighborhoods.