LEWISTON – The city’s Housing Authority is getting $8,695 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help support a program aimed at putting people into their own homes.
Jim Dowling, the authority’s executive director, said the money is the same amount that the city received two years ago. It didn’t apply for program funds last year.
Dowling said the money pays a portion of the salary of the person coordinating the Housing Choice Voucher Family Self-Sufficiency program.
Under the program, people receiving Section 8 housing assistance can agree to take steps to better their economic situations through education and employment.
Because Section 8 assistance is based on net income, when people get jobs that pay more, their share of the rent usually is increased. But through the self-sufficiency program, a portion of that rent increase goes into an escrow account. Once Section 8 recipients no longer get aid, they qualify to use the escrow funds toward a down-payment on their own homes.
Dowling said that four families have bought homes through the program since it began in 1991; 18 families are enrolled in the program this year, up from 13 last year.
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