ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar was scheduled participate in a national bus tour traveling the country to promote homeownership throughout June. For his part, Dollar plans to speak at the `Homeownership Express' bus stop scheduled for Birmingham, Ala., Friday, June 20. The purpose of the tour is to promote President George W. Bush's initiative advocating public and private partnerships to help increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade. Recent census figures have demonstrated that nearly 70% of all Americans own their homes, but less than half of African-American and Hispanic families are homeowners. "This bus tour is a significant part of the administration's outreach efforts to educate potential homeowners and creates opportunities to facilitate greater access to mortgage financing in America," Dollar said. "We are pleased that NCUA has been asked to participate and look forward to highlighting the agency's successful Access Across America initiative. This gives us the opportunity to emphasize the role of credit unions in providing the first step for folks from all walks of life in becoming homebuyers, and that is – access to affordable financial services." The bus tour will travel the entire country in June, which was proclaimed National Homeownership Month by President Bush. For more information on the bus tour, visit http://www.hud.gov/initiatives/ homeownership/homeownershipexpress.cfm. Also last weekend, NCUA Board Member Deborah Matz was scheduled to participate in two roundtable discussions with officials from New Jersey credit unions and the New Jersey Credit Union League. The league planned the discussions for Saturday, June 21. She spoke with officials from New Jersey's small credit unions first then participated in a roundtable dialogue with representatives of credit unions of various sizes. Just a week before, Matz spoke to the New York State Credit Union League in Saratoga Springs, stating, "I believe in miracles. I believe credit unions perform miracles." A native New Yorker, Matz lauded the league and credit unions for their efforts. "It's no accident that the theme of this convention is `Making A Difference,'" Matz told the attendees. "Few states have demonstrated the commitment to this philosophy as well as New York has." [email protected]