Park City community members who have never purchased a home before and are interested in applying for Park City Municipal or Habitat for Humanity’s affordable housing programs are required to attend a six-hour-long first-time homebuyer information session.
Park City Affordable Housing Program Manager Rhoda Stauffer says everyone who wants to apply for Park City Municipal housing must attend the one-hour orientation session on the basics of affordable housing, but the six-hour session, featuring specialists trained by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, is only for first-time homebuyers who want to apply for Park City-owned housing or Habitat for Humanity housing.
“It's significant," Stauffer said. "It's soup to nuts on what it means to be a homebuyer.”
Interested homebuyers must register ahead of time for the training. Stauffer says the six-hour session covers everything from financing to what it means to be your own landlord and more.
“There's a lot of moving parts to becoming a homebuyer, and we've heard from past homeowners, in the city program and in the past when we have provided these classes, it has actually become critical to a person even deciding if they're ready to buy a home,” Stauffer said.
The training session is one of many boxes potential applicants need to check before applying for housing through Park City’s program. There’s also the orientation session, pre-approval from a lender as well as all the income, net worth and work qualifications. Stauffer says it’s not unusual for affordable housing programs to have these requirements.
“There's a deep subsidy in every one of these units," Stauffer said. "That's a community asset, and so we're all about a partnership with these buyers to protect a very scarce community asset.”
Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Shellie Barrus says her organization takes a similar approach with its program.
“We're really trying to determine that we're selecting applicants that really are meeting the criteria of what we're trying to accomplish in the communities,” Barrus said.
There’s a first-time homebuyer training session on Saturday, Nov. 23 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mountainlands Community Housing Trust. There’s also a split session on Wednesday, Dec. 11 and Thursday, Dec. 12 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Park City Hospital Blair Education Center. Participants must attend both the Dec. 11 and 12 sessions to count.
To register for the training, contact Briana Siddoway at Habitat for Humanity by phone at 435-658-1400 x 1006 or email programs@habitat-utah.org.