Loan Program

A program that helps small businesses in Baltimore County to get loans will expand, with five new banks pledging to the fund, county officials announced Wednesday. With the new pledges, the Baltimore County Small Business Loan Partnership's fund will grow to $12.35 million, up from about $10 million, said Fronda Cohen, spokeswoman for the county's Economic Development Department. Businesses that are located in Baltimore County or planning to move there can get real estate and equipment loans from the program, which is a partnership between the private lenders and the county's Economic Development Department.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is launching a micro-loan fund for small businesses in Baltimore, to help them hire and stabilize their businesses. The effort, called BaltimoreMICRO, will enable small businesses with under $1 million in annual revenue to apply for loans ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. Retailers, service providers and contractors based in Baltimore are eligible. The program appears to be targeting small businesses, including stores and restaurants, in city neighborhoods.

A popular program of lending e-readers to patrons of the Enoch Pratt Free Library is expanding to all 22 branches in the system, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday. A $350,000 grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation will be used in part to purchase 200 Sony Readers, she said during a news conference. In the past, roughly two dozen Nooks that had been pre-loaded with popular titles could be checked out from the Waverly and Reisterstown branches.

A popular program of lending e-readers to patrons of the Enoch Pratt Free Library is expanding to all 22 branches in the system, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday. A $350,000 grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation will be used in part to purchase 200 Sony Readers, she said during a news conference. In the past, roughly two dozen Nooks that had been pre-loaded with popular titles could be checked out from the Waverly and Reisterstown branches.

In an effort to stimulate home sales in Baltimore -- where settlement costs are the highest in the state -- city officials have launched a $2.5 million loan program to provide second mortgages to cover settlement expenses.Under the program, a home buyer can borrow up to $5,000 for closing costs on the purchase of a city property selling for between $60,000 and $100,000. The program was funded through through a city bond sale, and the loans are expected to be available in early 1993. Five local lenders are in the program.

The Baltimore City Council is asking Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to issue a general obligation bond to continue a program that loans families up to $5,000 each to pay for home purchase closing costs.The Settlement Expense Loan Program (SELP) has provided 1,200 first-time homebuyers in Baltimore with $5.5 million toward closing costs since March 1993. The program recently exhausted its funds.Councilwoman Lois A. Garey, a Democrat from the 1st District who introduced the resolution, said the program has proven to be an effective way of encouraging homeownership by helping families overcome the initial cash burden of closing costs.

A small number of moderate-income Howard County homebuyers should benefit from a $255,275 state Community Legacy program revolving loan fund grant announced yesterday in North Laurel. The program would provide second mortgages worth up to $30,000 each for buyers of 10 new detached, single-family homes planned in Savage on land owned by the Howard County Housing Commission. The county bought land on Mary Lane for the planned Glens at Guilford development in 2002, but it has had to wait four years under Howard's development controls to get permission to build.

An estimated 350 homebuyers in Baltimore can get help with settlement costs, thanks to a $1.4 million infusion of funds into a popular city loan program.The city's Settlement Expense Loan Program, designed to help with closing costs and settlement fees, has been expanded from originally targeting first-time buyers to include any buyer of a house selling for up to $203,150, said Thomas H. Jaudon, chief of the Home Ownership Institute Development Division, in the city's Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Real Estate Center, a non-profit organization that promotes affordable housing, is starting a loan program to help potential homebuyers establish credit records or improve those records.Under the Credit History Loan program, the center will place $1,000 in the name of the client receiving the loan in a special account. Vouchers that act as payment are issued to each client.The term of the loan is four months and the annual interest rate is 9 percent. At the beginning of each month, the vouchers have to be mailed to the center to be recorded as payments.

With the aid of a private mortgage company, Howard County announced yesterday that it is expanding a low-interest loan program to help lower-income families buy homes in the county.The 2-year-old program makes loans of up to $6,000 available to prospective buyers who have not owned residential property in the past three years. The money is to be used for down payments and loan closing costs.County officials and Norwest Mortgage Inc. announced the availability of $600,000 in new funds for the program.

Side By Side's breakfast celebration and fundraiser will be held Saturday, March 3 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Bethany Community Church, 15720 Riding Stable Road. Guest speaker is Prince George's CountyExecutive Rushern Baker. A free breakfast will be provided by IHOP Laurel and a silent auction will be held during breakfast. Reservations are required by Feb. 27. Contact sidebyside@sidebysidelaurel.com or 202-710-5555. Auction proceeds and cash donations will help sustain and expand programs including Family Academy, an apartment homework club, community-wide tutoring, Spanish translation services in schools, a computer loan program and a new initiative, Great Start.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is proposing a $15 million increase in the state's program to help build affordable rental housing, saying the bump would leverage $285 million in private investment and create 1,100 jobs in Maryland. Surrounded by housing advocates, construction workers and local residents, O'Malley went to the site of a former public housing development in Annapolis to announce plans to double the state's investment in loans to developers to help spur rental housing construction.

The Havre de Grace city government once again finds itself wrongly in the position of acting as loan officer, bank board of directors and financier in a business matter. The Havre de Grace city government once again finds itself wrongly in the position of acting as loan officer, bank board of directors and financier in a business matter. Last week, the city council, with two members abstaining, voted, 3-1, to loan $100,000 to Mary Martin Ltd., which is a shop on Washington Street that deals in antique postcards and related paraphernalia.

A program that helps small businesses in Baltimore County to get loans will expand, with five new banks pledging to the fund, county officials announced Wednesday. With the new pledges, the Baltimore County Small Business Loan Partnership's fund will grow to $12.35 million, up from about $10 million, said Fronda Cohen, spokeswoman for the county's Economic Development Department. Businesses that are located in Baltimore County or planning to move there can get real estate and equipment loans from the program, which is a partnership between the private lenders and the county's Economic Development Department.

Help still is available for Marylanders at risk of losing their homes because they lost a job, their pay was cut or earnings reduced because of an illness. But time is running out. Homeowners facing foreclosure on their primary residence must get their applications into the state before 4 p.m. Sept. 16 to receive an interest-free, forgivable loan worth up to $50,000. The money is intended to help delinquent homeowners get current on housing payments and assist with future mortgage bills for as long as two years.

When Roy Miller couldn't afford to pay cash for furniture for his new Belair-Edison home last year, he didn't have to resort to a credit card or some other pricey form of borrowing. Instead, the 50-year-old housing counselor took advantage of a pilot lending program that provided a low-interest $1,000 loan and even paid him for salting away a little money in a separate account. "It's a good program. It's helping people to borrow and save," says Miller, who has repaid his loan.

Baltimore City has scraped together $500,000 to renew a popular loan program that has advanced more than 1,200 home- buyers millions of dollars to cover settlement expenses over the past two years.Catherine Caskey, development director for the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, said her agency will primarily use existing residential bond funds that were earmarked for a variety of other programs but have not been used.The funds may allow loans for more than 100 families over the next 12 months for middle-income prospective buyers hard-pressed to come up with thousands of dollars in closing costs.

THE NATION'S largest source of mortgage money, Fannie Mae, quietly has terminated a loan program that brought the company into the rapidly appreciating equity stakes of older homeowners. The program has the potential to cost some borrowers 30 percent or higher per year in combined fees and interest. Though Fannie Mae made no formal public announcement, it ceased financing new "equity-share" reverse mortgages for seniors 62 years and older Aug. 10. Under the equity-share concept, a senior pays not only a regular interest rate but gives the lender the right to as much as 10 percent of the total value of the home at sale.

Development of a new nuclear power plant in Maryland suffered a major setback last week with the disclosure that Constellation Energy Group has withdrawn from the federal loan guarantee program. Without those guarantees, it would appear unlikely that Calvert Cliffs 3 will be developed by Constellation and its partner in the project, Electricite de France. That can't thrill shareholders in Constellation, as the company has already sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, nor EDF, which invested in Constellation in order to participate in what many believe is a coming nuclear renaissance in this country.

Ten thousand interest-free loans are expected to be made to small businesses under a new federal program launched in June, but so far many banks aren't participating. Loans are trickling out with only a half-dozen made in Maryland. The goal of America's Recovery Capital loan program, part of the government's economic stimulus package, is to assist viable, but temporarily struggling, small businesses by offering them interest-free loans of up to $35,000 with lenient repayment terms. Banks started accepting applications for the government-backed loans June 15. The program runs through Sept.