The idea behind the incentive is to encourage professionals making middle income salaries to live in the district which employs them, pay taxes in that district and become more invested in the community’s welfare and economic health.
It is modeled on similar programs in other municipalities in Pennsylvania, including Allentown.
According to the outline of the program, applicants must be full-time employees for at least 90 days with the district and purchase a home in the borough to use a primary residence.
The program is not available to employees who already own a home in the borough and can only be accessed once, no matter how many district employees a household may have.
For five years, 20 percent of the $10,000 loan will be forgiven, provided that all of the conditions continue to be met.
Those conditions include that at no time during those five years, will a residence ever have more dwelling units that it did at the time of purchase.
If at any point, the homeowner ceases to be an employee of the district, or moves to a different residence, the remainder of the loan must be returned.
Rusiewicz said Wednesday two district employees have already inquired about access the program.
Rodriguez said he is pleased the new program has been put into place and he is actively looking for other similar partnerships.
He said Realtor Matt Green recently made him aware of a program called “Good Neighbors” by which police, teachers and firefighters can received a reduction of a much as 50 percent of the cost of purchasing a home held by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency.