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Homeownership is a fundamental tenet of the American Dream. Under Franklin Raines' leadership, Fannie Mae is working to make homeownership a right for all, rather than the privilege of a few.

Carl Brooks, President
Executive Leadership Council

FANNIE MAE
2001 Corporate Award

On January 1, 1999, Franklin Raines - one of only two African Americans leading a Fortune 500 company - became Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae, the largest non-bank, financial service company in the world. The following year he launched the "American Dream Commitment," a ten-year, $2 trillion dollar program aimed at increasing homeownership rates among 18 million targeted families. Targets include minority communities, female-headed households, young people, new immigrants, seniors, urban and rural dwellers, and inner city and older suburban neighborhoods.

In the first year of the new millennium, Fannie Mae financed over $190 billion dollars in home mortgages helping nearly 2 million needy families. Consumers and lenders also now have access to new technologies and programs that lower mortgage-financing costs, protect consumer rights and fight mortgage discrimination practices.

Among Fannie Mae's many success stories, housing transformations in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis and the Villages of Parklands in Washington, DC are typical. With the lowest per capita incomes and the highest concentrations of poverty in the city, the Phillips neighborhood was far from the glory days when it housed some of the wealthiest founders of Minnesota. Fannie Mae joined the Phillips Partnership, a grassroots effort, and provided financial and human resources to renew ownership and rental properties in the decaying community. A similar partnership in Washington, DC brought about the resurrection of the Villages of Parklands, a 54-acre multifamily community in Southeast, DC. The complex now has "villages" of 866 fully renovated apartments, landscaped grounds and playgrounds, 210 new town homes, a $1 million splash park, and a state-of-the art childcare center.