The bill entitled "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," signed into law on February 17, 2009, is a great step on the road to economic recovery and sustainable abundance for all Americans. While there are a great deal of important and relevant provisions in this act and I encourage you to read it through for yourself (if you are so motivated), the extremely dry and coarse nature of this type of legislation makes it hard to stay awake while reading through the hundreds of pages of seemingly repetitive dross.



The act itself numbers over 400 pages, and may be even more effective at putting you to sleep than a bedtime story! Jokes aside, this is not to discount the tremendous importance that this piece of legislation has for all Americans and especially those who are actively involved in maritime agencies such as the Air Force or Army.

The purpose of this article is to take all of that drab and provisional legalese and synthesize out of it the important parts that pertain to current homeowners, potential homeowners, the future home construction . To keep things simple, I will just say "The Act" from now on.

What The Act Means For The Military

There are several sections that discuss the military, but the most relevant section is called Title X (10). This portion goes into detail about the large amount of money given to fund new military housing construction projects in America.

President Obama has laid out his plan for ending the war, and if we are serious about the transition from a war-time economy to a peace-time economy then the conscription of members of our armed forces into benign and peaceful infrastructure construction projects and housing construction projects is paramount.

There are many provisions in Title X that discuss "Family Housing Construction" projects for the air force, army, and military, as well as the creation of a homeowners assistance fund.

What The Act Means For Current or Potential Homeowners

For anyone who currently owns a home that is having trouble staying current with your mortgage payments or is even at risk of foreclosure, there is a provision in Title X about the temporary expansion of the homeowners assistance program to respond to mortgage foreclosure and the credit crisis. There is special attention given in this section to veterans and members of the armed forces.

In the section entitled "Economic Recovery Tools" there is special attention paid to low-income housing projects and $2.25 billion worth of tax credits for financing low-income housing projects. This is good news for anyone in the market for a new house but does not have a lot of money to spend on it, as over the next few years we will see a large amount of new jobs and new homes built as a result of this provision.

What The Act Means For Broadband Access In America

In terms of infrastructure development, there is a section of the Act entitled the Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program that discusses the expansion of broadband service across homes, schools, and libraries all across America.

Particularly excellent about this section is the focus on providing broadband service to customers in unserved areas of the United States, which means that more people will be coming online every day and the web development and website industry will be going nowhere but up.

Recap Of Total Amount Of Money Spent For Housing

I have intentionally avoided listing many of the specific dollar amounts so far in order to avoid confusion, but here I will recap exactly how much money goes where to address housing issues.

Over $12.7 billion dollars will be spent in total on housing projects, with the largest portion of that money ($4 billion) going to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the construction and repair of public housing.

Also there will be a full $7.2 billion spent on broadband infrastructure development and wireless internet access. This is very good news for those small business owners whose income depends on a website or online store.