[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 26 (Monday, July 7, 2008)]
[Pages 937-938]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks Following a Roundtable Discussion on Housing Counseling in North
Little Rock, Arkansas
July 1, 2008
Thank you all for having us. We're here at the Family Service Agency
here in Little Rock to discuss ways to help people either buy a home for
the first time or stay in a home.
Before--I want to--before I say a few words about how the government
can help people stay in their home, I do want to thank Charles and your
team of counselors who are
[[Page 938]]
here. Thank you for your briefing. I thought it was very thorough and
understandable.
I do want to thank the Secretary of HUD for joining us, as well as
Congressman Boozman. I really appreciate your time.
And I want to thank Caroline [Carolyn] *, first-time home buyer--or,
she went to the first-time home buyers program in Jacksonville,
Arkansas--and Patty from Conway, Arkansas.
* White House correction.
One of the problems we have when it comes to buying a home is that
there's a lot of fine print, and people get worried about it. And so
these counselors have helped simplify the process. And one of the great
challenges now is how to help creditworthy people stay in their homes,
because we got some people who are--just with some little help, some
advice, and some counseling will be able to figure out a way to stay in
the home. It's in our national interest we do so. That's what Patty
bought--she had a home and was very worried about being able to stay in
it; got some good advice through Sue and is now in the home.
And this has happened all across America, by the way. There's some
good programs coming out of Washington, all aimed at saying to the
American citizen, if you are worried about staying in your home, contact
a counseling service, we'll help you--``we'' being the collective group
of people that are in this business. After all, this is a HUD-funded
counseling program; you receive some money from HUD for your counseling.
Congress can help, when they come back, to pass a good piece of
housing legislation that modernizes the FHA and reforms the--these GSEs.
And we--I think we can get us a bill, but it's going to require less
politics and more focus on keeping our minds on who we need to help, and
that's the homeowner.
And so I do want to thank you very much for having us. This is an
issue on people's minds. It's an issue where there is good help to be
had. And so if people are looking for help here in Arkansas, it's a good
place to turn to--family services. And there are other places around the
country where people can get help, where there's experts that will help
them refinance their mortgages or work with their mortgage companies to
help you stay in their homes. It's in our interest that more people stay
in their homes during this period of uncertainty.
I'm confident, in the long run, America's going to be just fine.
We're a country that has overcome challenges before. And we've got some
challenges--high gasoline prices; we've got some challenges in the
housing industry. We know the way forward in housing: good legislation
and helping people stay in their homes. And the truth of the matter is,
we know the way forward when it comes to energy. We're depending too
much on energy from overseas. We ought to be finding more energy here at
home. If people want their gasoline prices down, let's find energy here
in America. And there's plenty of energy to be had.
At any rate, thank you all for your time. I enjoyed it.
Note: The President spoke at 3:48 p.m. at the Family Service Agency. In
his remarks, he referred to Charles Deville, Jr., executive director,
Family Service Agency; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steven
C. Preston; Carolyn Pierson, homeowner, Jacksonville, AR; Patty Couch,
homeowner, Conway, AR; and Sue Pearson, budget, credit, and housing
counselor, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, Family Service Agency.