Kent Home Ownership Programs

The City of Kent operates several programs aimed at promoting home ownership. These programs provide assistance to low and moderate income persons and households who currently do not own a home in the City of Kent to access home ownership in the City. The programs use funding allocated by Kent City Council as part of the Acquisition Assistance and the Acquisition / Rehabilitation / Resale activities.

Generally, the program can assist Kent residents who are either ready to purchase a home and who are able to obtain bank financing, or it can assist residents who need some time to undergo credit repair or prepare themselves for homeownership. These programs are conducted in cooperation with the Portage Area Development Corporation (PADCO), located in Ravenna, Ohio. The programs are primarily limited to Kent residents but non-residents can be considered at certain times if no Kent residents appear on the waiting list for the program.

Conventional Home Ownership

Under this program, the City assists a person or family with the acquisition of a home by providing a low interest loan to assist with the downpayment on a home. The amount of the downpayment is structured in a manner to allow the borrower to acquire enough equity in the property to be able to avoid the additional cost of mortgage insurance. The downpayment loan is charged an interest rate of 1% with a 10 year term. Under this program, the applicant must be able to qualify for a conventional mortgage through a lender for the balance of the cost of the home. The applicant may choose any home in the City of Kent that is affordable according to their income and the amount of money they can obtain through the conventional loan. The home selected must also be in need of rehabilitation work.

Lease - Purchase Option

The Lease - Purchase option is an alternative program that is used to help with the purchase of a home, even though the applicant may not be quite ready to obtain conventional financing due to credit history or other issues that would delay the applicant from seeking permanent financing for the purchase.

In such cases, the applicant can enter into a short term lease purchase agreement that allows the applicant time to prepare for the purchase of a home. The home to be purchased must be located in the City of Kent. The final purchase of the home requires that the applicant obtain conventional financing.

Housing rehabilitation

The home ownership programs offered by the City of Kent require that the homes involved in the programs be rehabilitated. Thus, while the primary goal of the program is to provide home ownership opportunities for qualifying families, a secondary, but important goal of the program is to facilitate the rehabilitation of the City’s housing stock. In each case of assistance, the home to be purchased will be rehabilitated and the City will provide the rehabilitation assistance in the form of a deferred loan similar to the type of loan offered through the City’s Owner Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program Please refer to information about the City’s Owner Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program for more detail.

Homebuyer Counseling

Applicants seeking assistance through the City’s Home Ownership programs will be required to participate in a free counseling program provided through PADCO as part of the overall program.  The counseling program is used to assess each applicant with regard to their credit situation and help the applicant prepare for the responsibilities of home ownership.

Other Important Considerations

In order to avoid possible issues with the temporary relocation of a family during the rehabilitation of a home due to lead paint issues, the rehabilitation of the home should take place while the structure is still vacant.

While applicants may select the home that they wish to purchase from the open real estate market, they should not enter into any purchase agreements on a property until advised to do so by PADCO in conjunction with having complied with other program requirements.

Since the City only has a limited amount of funding available at any given time, assistance may not be available immediately. To get placed on the waiting list, an interested applicant must complete a one page Pre-Application Form and submit it to the City’s Community Development Department for review.

For more information about this program, or if you have any questions, please contact the City’s Community Development Department at 330-678-8108 or send an email with your name, address and email address to Bridget Susel, Grants and Neighborhood Programs Adminsitrator.