Section 8 Home Ownership Program

VSHA allows some people who have Section 8 Rental Vouchers to convert them into Home Ownership Vouchers. If you decide to do this, you may be eligible to receive assistance meeting monthly homeownership expenses, such as mortgage, taxes, and insurance. To be eligible for the Home Ownership Program:

* You must have a tenant-based “rental voucher” with VSHA

* The adults in your household who will have ownership interest must fall within the minimum and maximum income requirements of the program

* If your household is not elderly or disabled, at least one adult must be employed full time. Full time, for the purposes of this program, means an average of thirty hours per week for twelve consecutive months.

* To participate in this program, you must not own a home currently, and can’t have owned a home in the past three years (there are some exceptions for single parents who owned a home while married, and for displaced homemakers and for disabled households).

* In general, the adults in the household, who will own the home, must have an annual income of at least $14,500.00, although there are exceptions to this requirement for disabled households who have already been approved or qualified for financing.

*You must have saved a minimum of $2,000.00 in available funds which must remain available until you purchase. For disabled households, if having an asset of $2,000.00 would make you ineligible for another government program, you may request a Reasonable Accommodation for consideration of a waiver from the $2,000.00 asset. However, if granted, you would need to have saved at least $1,000.00 in available funds which must remain available to you until you purchase a home.

* Other guidelines also apply – for more information, please see the FAQs.

If you are interested in trying to convert your Rental Voucher into a Home Ownership Voucher, you should:

1) Complete the HOP Application.

2) Please return this to:

VSHA – FSS Coordinator
One Prospect Street
Montpelier, VT 05602-3556

3) Once your application is received at VSHA, we will review it. If you are found eligible, you will be referred to an approved Home Ownership Center to receive education and homeownership counseling and begin working toward becoming a homeowner.