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New Housing Program Benefits Philadelphia Employers and Employees
PHILADELPHIA,
January 13, 2005 - Couple the desire for a robust benefit package
with Philadelphia's wide choice of homes for purchase and you have
a winner, a new employee benefit program called "Philadelphia Home·Buy·Now."
Launched in 2004 as a partnership between the City of Philadelphia's
Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and the Greater Philadelphia
Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC), Philadelphia Home·Buy·Now
provides a menu of loan and educational products, technical support
and government matching funds that increase the purchasing power
of employees who buy a home in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Home·Buy·Now
offers employers a powerful new incentive for employee recruitment
and retention, and a great return on investment. It enables employers
to help employees purchase homes within the City and to reduce the
costs of employee recruitment, retention and turnover - while addressing
other "bottom-line" corporate needs.
The core of the Home·Buy·Now
program is a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $3,000 of City funds
per participating employee, which becomes available when a participating
employer provides financial assistance to an employee buying a home.
Other than requiring that the home be within Philadelphia, Home·Buy·Now
funding comes with "no strings attached." Employers decide
the level of assistance they wish to provide (employers may offer
as little as $500 per participating employee; some employers offer
more than $3,000), whether to offer the program as a recruitment
and/or retention tool, and what employee classifications to include
in the program. The program has no income restrictions. Many employees
will also be eligible for an additional $2,000 in state aid.
Local and national experience with employer-assisted housing programs
indicates that nonprofit and for-profit employers of all sizes can
benefit by offering some type of housing benefit program.
As of January 13, 2005, eight employers have enrolled in the Philadelphia
HomeBuyNow program:
- CitySort LP, a full-service mail processing
company located in North Philadelphia.
- People's Emergency Center, Pennsylvania's oldest
and most comprehensive social service agency for homeless women,
teenagers, and their children, located in West Philadelphia.
- Germantown Friends School, an independent co-ed
school for grades K-12 established by the Germantown Monthly Meeting.
- Re:Vision Architecture, a small firm located
in Chestnut Hill, specializing in environmentally sensitive planning
and design.
- GPUAC, the nonprofit agency that administers
the HomeBuyNow program, with 350 employees.
- Also, Citizens Bank, Fannie Mae and NewCourtland Elder Services,
businesses that introduced their own homebuyer assistance programs
several years ago, and are enhancing their offerings with products
available through Philadelphia Home.Buy.Now.
Participating employers typically amortize their costs against savings
gained by reducing employee turnover costs. Usually this is done
by requiring the employee to repay the employer's portion of the
benefit if the employee does not remain with the employer for a
period of time that is at least sufficient to recover the cost of
the benefit. Other employers fund this program by requiring employees
to opt for other less expensive benefit programs, including less
generous health packages.
Unlike other benefit programs with high ongoing costs, housing benefits
typically enable an employer to save money over a two- to three-year
period. Numerous surveys have indicated that employees are
willing to make these benefit "trade-offs" because of the strong
personal and financial benefits of homeownership. In this
regard Home.Buy.Now is part of a national trend towards offering
"life-cycle" benefits programs.
In addition to providing funds for homeownership, Home.Buy.Now also
offers homebuyer education programs to help prepare employees for
homeownership, as well as help with home improvement financing,
if employees already own a home. Employers can opt to participate
in any or all of these three menu options. Other than the cost of
the financial aid provided to employees there are no other employer
costs.
The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC) administers
the program for the city. Competitive first-purchase mortgages
are available through the participation of these banks: Beneficial
Savings Bank, Commerce Bank, Citizens Bank, National Penn Bank,
Sovereign Bank and United Bank.
GPUAC helps employers customize the program to meet individual business
needs. GPUAC also assists employers to implement of the program
in ways that minimize employer involvement and costs.
For more information about Philadelphia Home.Buy.Now, click
here or contact Tamara Grossett, Home.Buy.Now program manager,
at 215-851-1774; email tgrossett@gpuac.org
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