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Q&A

Home First down payment assistance program statistics and improvements

0:56:14

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161 sec

Deputy Commissioner Kim Darga provides statistics on the Home First down payment assistance program and discusses recent improvements and future plans.

In the last decade, just under 1,000 first-time home buyers were assisted in acquiring homes in New York City
In the last 5 years, 636 families applied, and 373 applicants (about 60%) received financing
Recent improvements include:
Increased limit to $100,000 for down payment assistance
New authority to use city resources for down payment assistance
Plans to bring on a second servicer and requalify housing counseling agencies
Exploring ways to expand the program's reach and scale

Adrienne E. Adams

0:56:14

Okay.

0:56:15

That's that's good to hear.

0:56:18

Just a couple more, and then I'm going to hand it over to the chair and my colleagues to continue.

0:56:24

And and looking at down payment assistance, you spoke a little bit about that deputy commissioner.

0:56:29

The home first program how many people have actually applied to home first over the last 5 years?

Kim Darga

0:56:39

So I think I have the applications.

0:56:42

I will double check that I might have to get back to you in a minute.

0:56:47

We have I know that we have actually, in the last decade, assisted just under a 1000 first time home buyers and acquiring a New York City.

0:57:01

It's actually the amount that we've helped the amount of homeownership, we've helped home New Yorkers access through home first, far surpasses, open door, ANC or any other individual program.

0:57:16

And we actually think there's really significant opportunities to think about ways that we could actually do more through that program.

0:57:28

For example, last year, we so we added additional home funds.

0:57:34

We increased the limit to a 100,000.

0:57:36

That certainly helped in being able to access homeownership opportunities in various markets across the city.

0:57:42

We have primarily used home funds because we didn't have the authority under state law to actually provide down payment assistance.

0:57:54

Last year, the state legislature amended our loan authorities.

0:57:57

And so for the first time, we could actually use city resources.

0:58:03

And so we've been trying to figure out what are there ways to expand what we're doing?

0:58:09

We've actually were bringing on a second servicer, and we are requalifying the housing counseling agencies in order to have a larger footprint in communities across the city.

0:58:24

And we're trying to figure out now what we could do to allow New Yorkers to increase more markets and to increase the scale.

0:58:33

Okay.

Adrienne E. Adams

0:58:34

I think I'm gonna say

Kim Darga

0:58:35

Oh, and I'm sorry.

0:58:36

I do I'm sorry to interrupt, but We had in the last 5 years, there were 636 homeowners families that applied, and 373 applicants got financing from us, so about 60%.

Adrienne E. Adams

0:58:51

60%.

0:58:52

Okay.

0:58:53

Okay.

0:58:54

Thank you.

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HPD's plans for new affordable homeownership programs

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Criteria for determining property suitability for HPD's financing programs