LANSING – A bill that would spend the state’s portion of a national foreclosure settlement on restitution for victims of wrongful foreclosure, aid to displaced students, blight elimination and legal counseling for those dealing with foreclosure was signed by Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday.

HB 5015 (PA 296) passed the House and Senate in mid-July. Attorney General Bill Schuette joined 48 other state attorneys general earlier this year in entering into a settlement with five national mortgage servicers for $25 billion, with $2.5 billion for state attorneys general to provide foreclosure relief and housing programs.

“These funds will go a long way to help responsible homeowners who were defrauded by a few mortgage providers to mitigate the impact of the foreclosure crisis in Michigan,” Mr. Snyder said in a statement.

The bill also provides supplemental funding for various state programs. The Michigan State Police will receive $600,000 to support its Secondary Road Patrol program, and the Department of Human Services will get $175,000 from the state General Fund and $702,100 in federal funding to reinstate specialized independent living rates to last year’s levels.

Snyder also signed HB 5572 (PA 291), a home visit program bill that sets up rules for voluntary home visiting programs that serve at-risk new and expecting families so as to allow the programs to continue to receive state funding.

The House and Senate sparred on the bill for some time over the inclusion of the words “culturally appropriate” as they pertain to the type of employees that could offer such assistance to families in need. Ultimately the bill did not include the language.

Finally, Snyder also signed into law a series of bills involving emergency loans (HB 5566 , PA 284; HB 5567 , PA 285; HB 5568 , PA 286; HB 5569 , PA 287; and HB 5570 , PA 288). The bills allow more flexibility in how the state gives out emergency loans to schools and cities.

“As Michigan emerges from difficult economic times, this legislation creates important pathways for cities and schools to receive the funds needed to operate and turn around their entities,” Snyder said in a statement.

The package includes loans the state can give out to municipalities from $5 million each year to a total of $85 million distributed over the next seven fiscal years, the statement said. Until September 30, 2018, the legislation also allows school districts under an emergency manager or with rapidly declining enrollment to receive emergency municipal loans.

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