State down payment aid program has helped dozens become first-time homebuyers

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon Housing and Community Services announced Wednesday that the agency’s Down Payment Assistance Program has helped 117 Oregonians buy a home.

The state awarded $22 million in down payment assistance to 21 organizations across the state earlier this year. As of Sept. 30, 2023, the organizations had distributed more than $4.3 million to dozens of homebuyers. This amounts to an average of $36,770 per homebuyer for homes across the state that cost, on average, just under $300,000.  

Daisy Glenn of Vale, Oregon, was one of those homebuyers when she faced eviction from her rental home after her landlord needed to sell the house. With more than a yearlong waitlist for rentals in the area, Daisy was facing the very real possibility that she would soon be experiencing homelessness.  

“Thanks to a down payment assistance grant funded by Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), Daisy was able to work with us, not only to keep her off the streets, but to buy her first home,” said Jessica McKinney, lead housing counselor at Community in Action, a homeownership center serving Malheur and Harney counties. 

Daisy is just one of the more than a hundred Oregonians OHCS and its partners have helped so far to realize the dream of homeownership through the Down Payment Assistance program, which is funded by the Home Ownership Assistance Program and Construction Excise Tax proceeds. She used the grant for her down payment and closing costs, which has the added bonus of making her mortgage payments affordable. 

So far, the assistance distributed amounts to an average of $36,770 per homebuyer for homes across the state that cost, on average, just under $300,000.

“We are so excited that Daisy was able to get the assistance she needed to buy her first home and stay stably housed,” said Keeble Giscombe, director of Homeownership at OHCS. “DPA is a valuable and necessary tool to help more low-income Oregonians become first-time homebuyers. We hope to continue hearing about more success stories like Daisy’s in the coming year.” 

To further reduce the racial wealth gap and increase generational wealth, OHCS redesigned the program prior to its 2023 rollout to benefit first-generation homebuyers, a new eligibility category for the program. As a result, 56% of the homebuyers are identified as first-generation and 62% are identified as people of color. 

Stories like Daisy’s are a prime example of how local partners, and the state can work together to increase homeownership and reduce homelessness.