Affordable Housing Corporation

Affordable Home Ownership Development Program

The Affordable Home Ownership Development Program is intended to promote home ownership by persons of low and moderate income in order to bolster the development, stabilization and preservation of neighborhoods. Under the Program, grants are awarded to municipalities, housing development fund companies, not-for-profit corporations and charitable organizations, and the grant funds are either used to help build and rehabilitate housing, or are awarded to prospective homebuyers who would otherwise be unable to purchase a home. At the time of our audit, the Program had been appropriated $265 million. We examined how Program funds were awarded to prospective homebuyers and, using industry recognized mortgage affordability ratios, determined that most of the grant recipients we sampled could have afforded larger mortgages and did not need a Program grant to finance the purchase of their home. We also found that the size of the grants was not always based on the needs of the homebuyers and different methods were used to determine income eligibility. We further noted that some grant recipients may not have occupied their homes for at least ten years, as required by the terms of the grants. We made several recommendations aimed at strengthening Program administration.

For a complete copy of 95-S-9 click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.