KEYS (Keep Earning Your Success) Program

Overview

The local incentive program, KEYS, is designed to promote homeownership by emphasizing employment, job training and career development. The program encourages personal accountability for individual success.

This program is not federally funded, and is offered at the sole discretion of RHA. The program is strictly voluntary for both RHA and participants and may be terminated or altered at the discretion of the RHA Board of Commissioners at any time, for any reason, without further obligation.

Goal

Work with participants to achieve homeownership on/before the end of their five-year Contract of Participation.

Services

The Housing Authority will assist participants to reach program goals by:

Offering home buying education and instruction through RHA’s Home Buyers University.

Providing career and personal counseling, emphasizing the importance of education and job training.

Providing and/or referring participants to workshops on credit counseling, budgeting and other home buying related topics.

Actively referring participants to community support services.

Homeownership Incentive Award

The program features a homeownership incentive award of up to $3,000.00, payable at closing. A percentage of the award is payable upon successful contract completion to participants who actually secure loan approval with a financial institution.* The percentage paid is determined by the timeframe in which a participant satisfactorily completes their contract. The incentive award is restricted in use, specifically earmarked for costs necessary for homeownership as determined by RHA. The incentive award cannot be used for earnest money, during the Offer to Purchase and Contract.

*Note: RHA reserves the right to review the terms of the mortgage and withhold the incentive award in cases where the resident may be a victim of predatory lending practices.

To earn the homeownership incentive, participants will be required to:

Complete RHA’s Home Buyers University or another RHA authorized homeownership training program.

Obtain certification in credit counseling and money management.

Secure loan approval for home purchase.

Open an individual savings account and show a balance of $1,000 by contract completion.

Gain full-time employment, defined as 35 hours per week, by the second year of the contract period and maintain employment throughout the remainder of the contract period.

Attend five (5) RHA authorized home buying related workshops per year.

Eligibility

All public housing or Section 8 families are eligible to participate in this voluntary program without regard to race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin. RHA will enroll applicants into the program on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Residents who have completed and received escrow under the FSS program must wait one (1) year before applying to the KEYS program.

Successful Completion and Measurable Outcome

Successful contract completion is defined as:

Having satisfactorily met all contract terms within the specified timeframe.

Having fulfilled program goals resulting in homeownership.

Participants who successfully complete the Contract of Participation will be loan-approved and actively engaged in the home buying process. This indicator is the only acceptable measure for determining true program success.

Termination of the Contract of Participation

Contract termination results in ineligibility to receive incentive awards and occurs when:

The participant and the Housing Authority agree to mutually terminate.

The participant withdraws from the program.

The S8 participant moves outside the Housing Authority’s jurisdiction.

The participant’s Section 8 assistance is terminated.

The HA determines there is noncompliance with the public housing lease.

The Housing Authority determines that the participant has not fulfilled his/her responsibilities

The participant shows dormant activity for three (3) consecutive months and/or is non responsive to contacts from RHA.

Additionally: The Housing Authority will give written notice of termination, stating the specific reason for the adverse action.