ResalesNAR Relief Fund Meets Goals
Realtors announced this week that it has closed the REALTORS® Housing
Relief Fund after providing housing assistance to 1,223 families in eleven
states and the District of Columbia that lost a head of household in the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
NAR raised and distributed $8,191,116 during the Fund"s nearly
three-month life. "Every Realtor in America should be tremendously proud of
what we have accomplished. We pledged to do our best to see that no family
that lost a breadwinner on September 11 will lose the place they call home.
We"ve assisted over 1200 homeowners and every penny we raised went to help
the families. This was indeed our finest hour," said NAR President Martin
Edwards, Jr.
“The New Jersey Association of REALTORS® (NJAR), played a key role
in the development of the fund,” said NJAR president Rosanne Citta.
“Donations and pledges to the fund from businesses and individuals in New
Jersey totaled close to $600,000. We provided aid to 414 familiesmore than
half of the New Jersey families that sustained a loss of a family
membertotaling more than $ 2.8 million. We’d like to thank the New Jersey
media for helping us get the word out to the public.”
The REALTORS® Housing Relief Fund was created within 24 hours of
9-11 with an initial contribution of $ 1,000,000 from the National
Association of REALTORS® and the New Jersey Association of REALTORS®
contribution of an additional $100,000.
According to Ms. Citta, “The need in New Jersey was to provide
money for the surviving families to pay their mortgage, rent, condo or
co-op payments immediately after the crisis. We’re proud of our volunteers
who manned our phones and processed the applications. Most assistance
checks were in the hands of families in seven days.”
She also added that NJAR and the other state REALTOR® associations
administering the fund paid all costs to provide aid. “In this way all
monies donated to the fund went directly to the families,” she added.
Victims" families still in need of housing assistance should
contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which operates a database
at http://www.fema.gov/nwz01/nwz01_117a.htm listing sources of housing
relief. These include FEMA itself (1-800-462-9029), the Manhattan Borough
President"s office (212-380-3223) and the New York City Hotline (866-227-0458).
The New Jersey Association of REALTORS® (NJAR) is a non-profit
organization serving the professional needs of approximately 36,000 real
estate agents in the state. NJAR and its member boards of REALTORS® are
part of the National Association of REALTORS®, the largest trade
association in the United States with more than 750,000 members.