News Release 
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 23, 2010 |
Media Contact: Arlyne Alston Email: aalston@ohiohome.org Phone: 614.387.2863 |
OHFA PARTNERS WITH OSU FOR HOMEOWNERSHIP INVESTMENT PROGRAM
Dr. Moulton receives the 2010 Engagement Impact Grant for affordable housing research
COLUMBUS – Dr. Stephanie Moulton, Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University's John Glenn School of Public Affairs (OSU) was recently awarded the 2010 Engagement Impact Grant from Ohio State’s Office of Outreach & Engagement to develop and evaluate a post-purchase homebuyer education program.
The Homeownership Investment Program was developed in partnership with: the Ohio Housing Finance Agency's (OHFA) Office of Affordable Housing Research (OAHR), Dr. Caziliia Loibl, Assistant Professor in the School of Human Ecology and OSU Extension Specialist, and Michael Collins, Faculty Director for the Center for Financial Security and Assistant Professor in the School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The program will focus on integrating financial planning strategies into an existing homebuyer education program to improve the quality of education and counseling currently provided to OHFA homebuyers.
"OAHR is very excited to partner with the OSU's John Glenn School of Public Affairs on the Homeownership Investment Program," said OHFA’s Dr. Holly Beard. "The Engagement Impact Grant will not only help OHFA educate new homeowners, it will also provide information about the effectiveness of homebuyer education strategies we already provide for our borrowers."
The $50,000 grant will build on OHFA's successful affordable mortgage program and educational services for homebuyers. The Homeownership Investment Program will incorporate an interactive online financial planning module and provide phone-based financial counseling services for homeowners during the first year after their home purchases. In addition to virtual financial planning tools, the grant funding will support the evaluation of the financial literacy interventions. The project will also include a random-assignment research design to determine the relative effectiveness of three types of counseling: online only, online and initial telephone counseling, and online and quarterly telephone financial counseling sessions.
"This type of evaluation is one of a kind," said OSU's Dr. Stephanie Moulton. "Previous evaluations of this kind are not based on random-assignment to different types of counseling interventions, so it is difficult to tell if the observed effects are due to selection-- individuals who choose to go to one type of counseling are also more motivated to make timely mortgage payments-- or if the effects are truly a result of the intervention. By employing random assignment, we will be able to identify the relative effectiveness of the various interventions."
OHFA utilizes federal and state resources to provide housing opportunities for families and individuals through programs designed to create, preserve, and manage affordable housing throughout the State of Ohio. The Agency is a self-supporting quasi-public agency governed by an eleven-member board, nine of whom are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. Two additional seats on the board, by statute, are reserved for the Director of Development and the Director of Commerce, or their designees, and both serve as ex officio voting members.
# # #
