It’s taken more than a year to work through the governmental bureaucracy, but federal funds finally are helping Stanislaus County families buy foreclosed homes.

Richie and Cortney Hartsfield will be among the first to benefit. They hope to close escrow by Thanksgiving on a rehabilitated 1,821-square-foot Keyes home.

“If this program didn’t exist, we would not be in position to buy,” said Richie Hartsfield, who has been living with his wife and two young children in a rented two-bedroom Turlock home. “They’re helping us with the down payment.”