40 Years of the Home Purchase Assistance Program, By The Numbers

• October 4th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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DC's homebuying assistance programs are intended to bridge the gap for residents who may have the credit but not the capital available to buy a home. This year, the city's largest assistance initiative, the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), turned 40 years old. Since the program's inception in 1978, 7,790 households have received over $213 million in down payment assistance and interest-free loans via the program. Now, new data reveals how the program's usage has changed over those decades.

 

As the above chart illustrates, it took awhile for HPAP to become widely used. There were small spikes in the number of households receiving assistance in 1990 and 1994, but the program seems to have really taken off in 2006, the first time more than 300 households received assistance. The usage peaked two years later in 2008, when 495 households were awarded HPAP monies. In the 2018 fiscal year, 171 households received assistance through this program.

 

Similarly, the total HPAP monies awarded didn't exceed $5 million until 2006, when it shot up to $12.95 million. The total funding awarded peaked in 2007, when $25.9 million in HPAP monies were remitted. For the most recent fiscal year, this total was just over $8.6 million.

 

Based on the data in the above charts, UrbanTurf calculated the average assistance awarded per household each year. Between 2004 and 2007, the average award rose steadily, peaking at $55,000 in 2007. Awards dropped to $29,669 in 2013 before climbing back up to last fiscal year's $50,503.

It remains to be seen how DHCD's Fiscal Year 2019 cuts to housing counseling providers which administer DHCD's HPAP orientation (among other sessions to assist residents with taking advantage of DHCD programs) will impact HPAP's accessibility.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/40-years-of-the-home-purchase-assistance-program-by-the-numbers/14529.