The use of Housing Choice Vouchers for homeownership will give many individuals and families of low incomes the opportunity to purchase their own homes.

Participants in the Housing Choice homeownership program may use their Housing Choice vouchers to make monthly mortgage payments for a maximum term of fifteen (15) years on a mortgage loan of twenty (20) years or more. Mortgage loans for less than twenty years may be subsidized for a maximum term of ten years. The final rule provides that the maximum term limit does not apply to elderly (being 62 or older) or disabled families.

For qualified Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) participants, HACC provides assistance for individuals/ families to purchase a home by applying their existing housing choice voucher to their monthly mortgage payment instead of their monthly rental payment.

A Housing Choice Voucher program participant who wishes to utilize their voucher subsidy to purchase rather than rent a home must meet the following initial eligibility requirements:

• MUST be enrolled in the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program
• MUST meet the required credit score of lenders
• Meet minimum income requirements ($14,500 per year)
• Families who are disabled minimum income requirements ($6,624 per year)
• MUST be employed continuously for at least 1 year
• MUST be a HCV participant with HACC for one year
• Families that have completed Pre-Purchase Housing Counseling
• MUST be a First Time Homebuyer (no family member has owned a house in three years)
• MUST be in full compliance with the current lease
• MUST attend a mandatory homeownership orientation
• Families must not have committed a felony crime in the past five years
• Families must not have committed fraud using federal money
• Home must pass 2 Inspections, one by an Inspector who is certified by the American Society of Home Inspection and a PHA Inspection
• Disabled or Elderly households are exempt from the employment requirement

Application Process: Persons interested in participating in the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program MUST contact their HCV Case Manager FIRST for eligibility purposes. If you are not already in the Family Self-Sufficiency Program you must be in the program for at least 1 year before you are eligible for home ownership.

Waiting List: Spots in the homeownership program are limited.