Since October, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency has been testing the waters of a grant and loan program that helps aspiring homeowners with down payments and closing costs.

However, the Revitalizing Neighborhoods and Increasing Homeownership pilot program sets itself apart by also helping with student loans, writes Michaelle Bond for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

For people like Shirda Hudson, the pilot program has paid huge dividends. 

She received a $25,000 home-buying grant, including $14,000 that went toward her student loans.

As a result, last month she and her husband, Darnell, moved into a four-bedroom, two-bathroom rowhouse in Olney along with their 11-year-old and two college-aged children.

The pilot program is a collaborative effort between several other organizations as part of a goal to help 5,000 Philadelphia households of color become homeowners.

“If down payment and closing costs and student loans are preventing and affecting their ability to access a mortgage to buy a house, they need to know that there are programs like RNIH that are out there,” said Abraham Reyes Pardo, vice president of housing and diversion services at the Urban League of Philadelphia.

The program offers favorable mortgage terms, loans of up to 5 percent of a home’s price, and grants of up to $25,000.

Read more about the program helping create first-time homebuyers at The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

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