A Home of Your Own
Montana Toolkit for Self-Determination
Buying Or Renting
Your Own Home:
Some Options
Sponsored by The Montana Council on
Developmental Disabilities

A Home of Your Own
• Places to start:
• Your local housing authority
• Local or statewide disability homeownership groups
• HUD housing counseling
• Local independent living centers

A Home of Your Own
• HomeChoice
• Available through homeownership coalitions for people with disabilities
• Mortgages require 3% down payment, have higher debt to income ratio (you do not need to earn a lot of money to buy a house)

A Home of Your Own
• HomeChoice
• Accept non-traditional credit histories (little to no credit prior to application)
• Recognize non-traditional sources of income and support, including public disability benefits
• The loan limit for a 15- or 30-year fixed rate mortgage is $275,000

A Home of Your Own
• The Section 8 Housing Voucher
• For low income people for renting or buying a home
• The qualified yearly income for a person with a disability is 12 times the SSI check amount (2010 $674/mo x 12 mo = $8,088)
• Employment is not required

A Home of Your Own
• Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
• Savings accounts for people with disabilities where, when they deposit money into the IDA account, get from 3%-
7% “matched” by another organization
• IDAs do not count toward the SSI resource limits
• May require “Pre purchase counseling” or financial education training

A Home of Your Own
• Social Security/SSI considerations
• A person receiving SSI and Medicaid can own a home and not have the value of the home count as part of their resource limits
($2,000 for a single person, $3,000 for a couple), if they live in the home.

A Home of Your Own
• Information used for this presentation from the World Institute on Disability, Dede
Leydorf, 510-251-4340 and
• Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
Housing Taskforce, 202-783-2229 www.c-c-d.org/task_forces/housing/tfhousing.htm

A Home of Your Own
• Renting your home
• Person-centered resources
• HUD Section 8 Housing Vouchers
• Subsidized apartments

A Home of Your Own
• In developing a person-centered residential plan for a person, many support resources will be identified, both paid and unpaid
• During this process, a living situation may be identified such as an apartment attached to a private home whose owner is acquainted with the person, and supports his community integration goals

A Home of Your Own
• HUD Section 8 housing vouchers
• Allow you to find your own housing, single family homes, townhouses or apartments
• Owner agrees to rent under the program
• Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety
• Person pays the difference between the typical rental value and the subsidy
• Rent equals 30% of the person’s adjusted income

A Home of Your Own
• Low income apartment complexes
• HUD helps apartment owners offer reduced rents to low-income tenants
• Find apartment complexes through the local public housing assistance provider

A Home of Your Own
• For more information about renting a home:
• National Council of State Housing
Agencies (Specific state information)
• http://www.ncsha.org/section.cfm/4/39/187
• HUD Housing Voucher Program
• http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/h cv/index.cfm