COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 30, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just before Christmas, Azad Saeed, his wife Gulala and their two daughters received the keys to their new home in Columbus's North Linden neighborhood, thanks to Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus, Arlington Bank and a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati.
The Saeed family is the beneficiary of a grant through the FHLBank's American Dream Homeownership Challenge program, which gave the award to Arlington Bank and Columbus Habitat to help build two homes in Columbus. Since its inception in 2003, American Dream has provided $11.4 million to help 1,236 persons become first-time homebuyers.
The Saeed home included the Enterprise Foundation, Heritage Christian Church and Discover Card Services as sponsors. Habitat Columbus has also received $1.2 million from the FHLBank's Affordable Housing Program since 1989 in partnership with Fifth Third Bank to create 131 affordable housing units in the community with total development costs of $14.1 million. Other community partners for the Saeed family home included the Greater Linden Development Corp. and the City of Columbus, Department of Development.
The Saeed home marks the 13th completed and dedicated by Habitat Columbus during 2009, with an additional three in progress which will be dedicated in 2010.
The FHLBank is a $77 billion congressionally-chartered wholesale regional bank providing financial services for residential housing and economic development to 738 member financial institutions located in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. It has contributed $301 million for the creation of 42,000 units of lower-income housing through its Affordable Housing Program since 1990. The FHLBank System includes 12 district Banks, is wholly owned by its 8,100 member institution stockholders and does not use taxpayer dollars.