Housing Assistance

HOUSING ASSISTANCE IS provided to the poor and low-income buyers in a variety of ways in the United States. The Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) is a federally registered nonprofit organization. Its mission is to help families buy homes. If a family is given an HAC grant to purchase a home, the grant does not have to be repaid. In this way dream home ownership can become a reality.

Legally HAC is a federally registered 501(c)(3) corporation. It has a working relationship with other federally registered 501(c)(3) organizations with which it issues home grants. The Home Grant program is a Special Down Payment Assistance Program. In order to purchase a home on credit a down payment is needed and many low-income families cannot muster a down payment. The Special Down Payment Assistance Program gives the down payment to individuals or families across the nation so that they can purchase a home.

Many thousands of low-income individuals and families have been aided by these home grants, which do not have to be repaid. The funds donated for this purpose are used to pay the down payment and the closing costs. A stipulation of the grant is that the individual or the family must accept training in homeowner education.

The many nonprofit organizations that participate in the program are spread across the United States. These supporting organizations are staffed by experienced real estate professionals who are dedicated to the vision of aiding low-income home buyers. Among the services that home grant workers perform are debt counseling, budgeting skills, credit management, and fiscally responsible spending. The Special Down Payment Assistance Program and the people who work in it are committed to helping low-income or first-time young buyers to achieve the American dream of home ownership. The program allows for home purchases with “little or no money down.”

In other areas of housing assistance, the federal government has relief housing available after natural disasters. In 2005 following devastating Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, a program of Emergency Temporary Housing Facility houses was instituted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The houses were temporary emergency housing that was very similar to travel trailers.

In order to be eligible for emergency housing people had to register and include some kind of mailing address through the United States Postal Service or a phone number. While people were living in temporary housing, a program of disaster assistance was available. This program would give people assistance with repairing or rebuilding their hurricane-damaged home. The program was designed to help people repair, rebuild, replace lost household items, and pay for other related expenses.