Using HOME to Develop a Homebuyer Assistance Program

Copies of Model Programs are available through Community Connections (http://www.comcon.org/).

HUD-1782-CPD, June 1999

Across the Nation, a steady transformation has been taking place in the use of HOME funds for the development of effective homeownership programs.

Although a significant percentage of HOME funds continue to be used for rental housing assistance, there is a growing trend in communities across America to put HOME to work helping low- and moderate-income families to purchase their own houses.

This guide details how States, counties, and cities have worked with a variety of actors and institutions to develop innovative and highly productive homeownership programs.

States, counties, and cities view this assistance as a way to:

• Increase the supply of affordable housing for families for an extended period of time;
  
  
• Stabilize property values and create a balance between rental and ownership stock in certain neighborhoods; and
  
  
• Help renters who have steady incomes but cannot make the leap to ownership because they lack the lump sum needed to cover closing and downpayment costs.