Buying a home is one of the most important purchases someone can make, and a down payment assistance program relaunched by the Columbus Consolidated Government’s Community Reinvestment Department aims to make it easier for first-time buyers in Muscogee County.
The program, Sweet Home Columbus , now provides up to $30,000 in down payment assistance to HUD income-eligible first-time home buyers. This means their household income is under 80% of the area median income.
“We made a big change in the program because we started noticing that the gap of affordability for homeownership for defined low-income households was pushing the American dream of homeownership out of reach for this population,” Robert Scott, director of the Community Reinvestment Department , told the Ledger-Enquirer.
The down payment assistance program in Columbus dates back over 40 years, city manager Isaiah Hugley told the Ledger-Enquirer, and it’s always been federally funded.
When Scott became the director in 2020, the program offered participants up to $10,000 and wasn’t well-marketed, he said. The department raised the amount of assistance to $15,000 in 2022.