Employer-Assisted Housing Class

For Employers

REALTORS® along with other real estate professionals, lenders and non-profit housing organization staff who have taken NAR’s Employer-Assisted Housing class are able to discuss employer-assisted housing with local employers and to work with them to help implement an EAH benefit for their employees.

These REALTORS® and their teams can discuss EAH, its benefits and three types of EAH benefits with employers. They can conduct homebuyer and homeownership workshops at the workplace and schedule one-on-one counseling sessions with non-profit housing organizations for employees. They can also discuss the various financial assistance options (loans, grants and matched savings) that employers can offer to their employees as well as local financial assistance programs that can be leveraged.

EAH Benefits for Employers

• Enable employees to live closer to the workplace
• Strengthen employee recruitment
• Improve employee retention
• Revitalize the local economy
• Provides a measureable return on investment in employee productivity
• Enhance employee-employer relationships
• Reduce commuting for your employees
• Gain recognition in your community as an employee-friendly business

If you are an employer interested in implementing an employer-assisted housing benefit, please contact eah@realtors.org and we will give you the names of local REALTORS® that can assist you.

EAH Resources

• Reports, Guides & Articles 
  • Developing an Employer-Assisted Housing Benefit Plan: Step-by-Step Guide

EAH Benefit Assistance - Non-Profit Organizations

Nationwide
Metropolitan Planning Council - offers technical assistance to help local communities, organizations, and employers get successful EAH programs up and running.

California
Coastal Housing Partnership - supports Santa Barbara and Ventura County employers by providing financial assistance programs and educational services to assist employees in becoming homeowners in the local community. More than 40 employers participate, paying annual dues based on size (total annual dues for a company of 51-100 employees is $2,100). An employee’s average savings on a home purchase is approximately $6,000, including discounts on fees, closing costs, and brokerage commissions. CHP maintains a list of approved service providers, including lenders, real estate companies, and home inspection companies. CHP also provides homebuyer counseling.

Colorado
Funding Partners for Housing Solutions - works with public and private-sector employers to establish an employee benefit program that rewards loyalty, while lowering the costs associated with turnover at key positions. FP works with employers to define specific objectives the program should achieve, key staff positions, eligibility requirements, program procedures and monitoring requirements. Ultimately, it is the employer that determines what the program offers and which employees are eligible to use the program.

Illinois
REACH Illinois - is made up of a collaboration of nonprofit housing counseling organizations, the Metropolitan Planning Council, Housing Action Illinois, the City of Chicago’s Dept. of Community Development, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority. This collaborative introduced Illinois employers to employer-assisted housing models, administers EAH programs for participating employers, and helps those employers and employees access available resources.

Mississippi
Mississippi Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation - The Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation created REACH Mississippi to address the housing challenges created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The program matches an employer’s down payment assistance 3:1. Northrop Grumman, one of approximately 65 participating employers, provides $7,500, which is matched by $22,500 to reach a down payment assistance of $30,000. Partner nonprofits provide homebuyer education. The employer dollars are forgiven over five years, and the state matching funds are repayable upon sale of the home.

New York - Nassau and Suffolk Counties
Long Island Housing Partnership - helps to ensure economic stability into the future by helping working families access homeownership in an expensive housing market. The employees of participating companies receive down payment assistance from their employer (from $3,000 or $5,000 up to $10,000), which is matched 3:1 by the program (using state funds). Participating employers include Northrop Grumman, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health Systems, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, and Our Lady of Consolation. 

Oklahoma
Rural Enterprises of Oklahoma, Inc - offers technical assistance to help start developing a company’s EAH benefit package. 

Pennsylvania
The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition – designed the Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now employer-assisted housing program in 2005 under contract with the City of Philadelphia. There are now over 35 participating employers including four universities: Temple, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel and St. Joseph’s. As an agent of the City of Philadelphia, the Coalition is responsible for administering the menu of housing related benefits that participating employers may offer under the program. The menu includes a matching grant up to $5,000 for down payment and closing costs, homebuyer education classes and linkages to individual pre-purchase counseling, and home inspection services. The Coalition also assists the City in marketing the program to prospective employers. For more information contact: Ms. Rachel Moore at the Urban Affairs Coalition at 215-851-1847 or by e-mail at rmoore@gpuac.org; Mr. Jim Flaherty at the City of Philadelphia at 215-683-2126 or by e-mail at jim.flaherty@phila.gov.

Wisconsin
Select Milwaukee - a nonprofit organization provides homebuyer education, pre-purchase counseling, foreclosure prevention assistance, and employer-assisted housing program administration in the City of Milwaukee. Select Milwaukee partners with more than a dozen local employers to offer employer-assisted housing, including Harley Davidson, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Aurora Healthcare, and the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). The employers provide $5,000 in down payment assistance and refer employees to Select Milwaukee for homebuyer education and assistance through the purchase process. Select Milwaukee also helps employees access additional resources, as available.

Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority - The mission of WHEDA, the state's housing finance agency, is to offer innovative products and services in partnership with others to link Wisconsin residents and communities with affordable housing and economic development opportunities. Working with employers to identify the housing needs of their valuable employees is one way to accomplish this mission. This is accomplished through outreach and training housing professionals across the state, working directly with employers to design and administer, if needed, their unique EAH program; and collaborating with the local housing professionals and the employer to provide appropriate homeownership education and counseling for their employees to prepare for homeownership.

EAH Benefit Assistance - Companies

• Cirrus Housing Solutions, Inc - custom built recruiting and retention programs that feature employer contributions in a variety of ways including deferred loans, repayable loans, forgivable loans, grants and matched savings.
• EAH Benefits, Inc. - provide the necessary material to help you start your own EAH benefit plan, or we can fully develop and implement an EAH plan for you.
• Home Financing Center - Offers a turnkey solution for corporations, schools, hospitals, governments and other major employers that helps South Florida employers recruit and retain professional employees.

Note:  If your organization or company provides employer-assistance housing benefit management or administration, please e-mail eah@realtors.org and we will add your company to these listings.