Evaluation of the Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Program

Created by Congress as part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, the Nehemiah Housing Opportunities Grant Program has three primary goals:

• to increase homeownership among low- and moderate-income households,
• to improve neighborhoods in cities across the country, and
• to increase employment in those neighborhoods.
The program was modeled after a large, single-family homeownership project sponsored by the East Brooklyn Churches in a devastated section of Brooklyn, New York. That project produced 1,250 homes for low-income homebuyers at an average cost ofless than $70,000 per home. The unit~ were made affordable to purchasers in part through $10,000 deferred-payment loans from the City of New York. The national program offers competitively-selected nonprofit organizations federal funding of up to $15,000 per unit, which is used to provide interest-free second mortgage loans to first-time, low- and moderate-income homebuyers. These funds are available to the nonprofit sponsor only after a sales closing. No federal funds are provided under the program for acquisition or development.