Home Ownership Program
Description
Our homeless program benchmarking and best practices analysis indicates that home ownership is important for breaking the cycle of poverty and achieving long term financial independence. However, it is difficult for formerly homeless families to realize the dream of home ownership. In July 2004, Ward Family Foundation entered into a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Tri-State, Ohio Kentucky Indiana, Inc. (Habitat) and two homeless programs in the Greater Cincinnati area to promote homeownership for formerly homeless families. Key duties and responsibilities of the various participants are described below.
The role of the participating homeless programs is to:
- Work closely with Ward Family Foundation to implement best practices
- Nominate deserving families and support them long-term throughout the period of home ownership
- Provide summary historical information about graduates from the program to Ward Family Foundation for further best practices analysis
The role of Habitat is to:
- Work closely with Ward Family Foundation and the participating homeless programs to make home ownership a possibility for the families nominated
- Administer the acceptance criteria and decision process in a manner consistent with all other Habitat applicants
The role of Ward Family Foundation is to:
- Provide financial assistance to “improve the qualification status” for families nominated for this home ownership initiative. This financial assistance is intended to bridge the gap between a family’s financial situation and Habitat’s mortgage requirements, thereby making it possible for the family to achieve home ownership.
- Work with Habitat to ensure this financial assistance is repaid to Habitat through the normal mortgage payment process so that other families can benefit from this program in future years
