www.hudclips.org 


U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington, D.C. 20410-8000

October 7, 1996
 
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR HOUSING-FEDERAL HOUSING COMMISSIONER
 
MORTGAGEE LETTER 96-57
 
TO:  ALL APPROVED MORTGAGEES
 
SUBJECT:  "Reinventing" FHA - Opening of Single Family Homeownership Centers
 
     In Mortgagee Letter 94-26 , we informed you of the organizational changes
that would begin to occur within HUD and FHA as a result of the Secretary's
efforts to "reinvent" the Department and transform it into a more efficient and
effective organization.  The purpose of this Mortgagee Letter is to provide you
with more information about the efforts that are ongoing to streamline FHA
Single Family operations, so that we can provide better service to lenders at
less cost.
 
     In 1994, Single Family FHA embarked on a reorganization of its field
operations which was designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of
its housing programs.  As part of that reorganization effort, FHA established
a prototype Single Family Underwriting and Processing Center in Denver,
Colorado to process Single Family mortgage insurance applications and provide
other related insuring services.  It was believed that by consolidating and
centralizing certain processing functions we could provide more efficient and
timely insuring of mortgages.
 
     We are pleased to report that our Denver Underwriting and Processing
Center has proven very successful in meeting our customer service goals and now
insures mortgages for an 11 state area covering Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and
Wyoming.  Mortgages covering properties in these states are insured by the
Denver Underwriting and Processing Center within 2 days of receipt and the
rejection rate for insurance packages is two thirds less than the rest of the
country.  Because of the success of the Denver Underwriting and Processing
Center, we are expanding its functions and renaming it the Denver Homeownership
Center.  Effective September 23, 1996, we added to the Denver Homeownership
Center, a Quality Assurance Division to oversee risk management activities
and a Marketing/Outreach Division to coordinate lender training, homebuyer
education programs and similar initiatives.  These added functions will increase
our ability to effectively manage the FHA Single Family programs in the areas
served by this center.
     In addition to expanding the Denver Homeownership Center, we also opened
Homeownership Centers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, Georgia on
September 23, 1996.  The new Homeownership Center in Philadelphia will begin
operations by insuring mortgages for the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden,
New Jersey HUD offices, but will eventually service all of the states in the
northeastern part of the country from Maine to Virginia.  The Atlanta
Homeownership Center will begin operations by insuring mortgages for the
Atlanta, Georgia and Orlando, Florida HUD Offices, but eventually serve the
entire southeastern section of the country.
 
     We look forward to the further expansion of our Homeownership Center
operations plan in the future as FHA continues its efforts to expand
homeownership opportunities for unserved and underserved homebuyers and readies
itself for the challenges of the 21st century.  We will keep you informed as our
transformation progresses.
 
Sincerely yours,
 

Nicolas P. Retsinas
Assistant Secretary for Housing-
Federal Housing Commissioner