6129-Denver Housing Autho

Households with low incomes receiving DHA or Housing Choice Voucher subsidies volunteered to participate in HOP, which provided a range of case management, education, and supportive services to build families' financial assets, promote resident economic self-sufficiency, and increase rates of home ownership. HOP's services built on those provided both as part of DHA's Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) and Resident Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) programs. These programs provided participating residents with financial assessments, credit monitoring and repair, financial management counseling, financial literacy classes, matched escrow accounts, subsidized education, work-readiness activities, and supportive services. HOP services complemented and extended these services in two stages. In the first stage, HOP worked alongside the FSS and ROSS programs to provide case management and help households reduce debt, manage credit, find or retain employment, and increase savings. Once case managers believed residents had built enough assets to purchase a home within one year, participants progressed to the second stage, which provided training and services to help residents purchase a home through a Home Buyers Club. Home Buyers Club services included homeownership counseling, frequent case management contacts, training on how to find and purchase a home, and access to financial supports, including low mortgage interest rates, fee discounts, and cost assistance during the home-buying process. Unlike the FSS and ROSS programs that capped service receipt at five years, HOP participants could continue receiving services were not time-limited, meaning that people could remain in the program until they bought a home as long as they continued to receive housing subsidies. The study authors defined the intervention group as HOP participants who eventually joined the Home Buyers Club and received the second stage of HOP services.