Nehemiah CEO Urges Bush to Save DPA

Scott Syphax, president and chief executive of The Nehemiah Corporation of America, Sacramento, Calif., has called on President Bush to save the controversial seller-funded downpayment assistance program that would be banned by the housing bill he is expected to sign into law. The elimination of DPA programs "will negatively impact generations to come," Nehemiah said. Mr. Syphax stressed in his letter that what is being ignored is that "seller-funded downpayment assistance is the only remaining safety net available to millions of families today seeking home ownership." The Department of Housing and Urban Development "has spent more than 10 years fighting to shut us down rather than work with us to determine how to improve a downpayment assistance program that has helped more than 1,000,000 American families," he wrote.