MUSCATINE, Iowa – Starting it sooner, in Dick Yerington’s opinion, is perhaps the only thing that could have improved the Iowa Home Ownership Education Program in Muscatine.

“There are many families at risk of foreclosure,” Yerington, Muscatine Municipal Housing Agency director, said Wednesday.

“This will help them find alternatives or ways to make it less stressful,” he said. “It will also help families make logical and educated decisions [about home buying].”

The program will provide free educational counseling for homebuyers in Muscatine County, Yerington said.

The housing agency in August submitted a grant to the state to launch the program in Muscatine. The grant was approved in September 2009.

Yerington said many loan programs require an education course before buyers sign on the bottom line for a new home. Muscatine County has never had such a program that was offered for free.

While the Housing Authority usually works primarily with Section 8 residents — those making no more than 50 percent  of the median income in Muscatine — the education program will be open to anyone who makes less than 80 percent of the community’s median income.  The median income  in Muscatine for a family of three is $56,400, according to Yerington, meaning an eligible family of three could make up to $45,120.

“We will be able to expand our help,” Yerington said.

Though funding for the counseling position is still under way, Yerington said he hopes to see the education program start by January.

In the meantime, Yerington and his staff are  waiting on the outcome of another grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its Family Self Sufficiency program.

Yerington said more than 370 Muscatine County families participate in Section 8 assistance and more than 500 have been added to the waiting list.

He said an estimated $1.6 million are in his department’s budget for housing assistance next year.

“It’s a significant program,” Yerington said of FUSS. “It generates a lot of community resources.”

The FUSS program will promote economic independence by allowing Section 8 families to sign a contract agreeing to accomplish personal milestones related to employment, education or training within a five-year period.

Yerington said the regional office in Kansas City, Mo., and one of its representatives in Des Moines encouraged he and his staff to apply for the FUSS grant, although nothing is guaranteed yet. Yerington hopes to hear the results of the  application in January.

A program coordinator position will be funded by the grant for over $54,000 including benefits, Yerington said.

The program coordinator will be responsible as a “coach,” Yerington said, providing assistance in referrals to  things like employment, college or school courses and resume development.

As a family’s income increases, an amount equal to 30 percent of that increase is deposited into an escrow, or savings, account.

After five years and successful completion of the FUSS program, the family can draw out the money saved and use it as it wishes, often for a down payment on a home, tuition or transportation.

Case managers will be assigned to each family to help it reach financial goals, Yerington said.

“It’s just one incentive [to complete the program],” Yerington said. “The other incentive is, of course, to be happy and successful.”