[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.