Nehemiah Corporation of America is a non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California specializing in homeownership, affordable housing and community development. It started in 1994 as a small organization, but grew to prominence later in the 1990s after it developed a program that allowed home buyers to make down payments on their purchases using funds that were derived from the home sellers. This program, the Nehemiah Program, became popular and was widely emulated, giving birth to what came to be known as the seller-funded down-payment assistance industry. The industry attracted criticism from U.S. federal agencies (particularly the Government Accountability Office and the Internal Revenue Service) and was ultimately shut down in 2008 by a change in federal law. Since 2008, the Nehemiah Corporation has been operating as a social enterprise organization. Via its affiliates and subsidiaries, it has been providing real-estate development capital for low-income neighborhoods, as well as providing instructional and other resources related to individual finance and home ownership. It also sponsors management training for young adults. The Nehemiah Program The Nehemiah Program is not to be confused with the Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Grants ("NHOP") program enacted in 1988 by Title VI of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987. NHOP ceased operation in 1991 and was unrelated to the program described here. Background When mortgage lenders consider whether to underwrite a particular loan, they look to factors such as the creditworthiness of the borrower and the amount of down payment the borrower will be making. The amount of the down payment required by the mortgage lender can be as high as 20% of the home's purchase price. In the United States, the down payment requirement can be substantially reduced if repayment of the mortgage is guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration ("FHA"), an agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). The required down payment under such FHA insured loans has varied over time; in the 1990s it was 3% of the home's purchase price. In its original form, the qualification requirements for an FHA insured loan called for the borrower to be his/her own source of funds for the down payment. In 1996, the U.S. Congress amended the statute to permit the down-payment funds to come from a family member of the borrower. However, HUD subsequently issued guidelines that considerably expanded the list of exceptions beyond that which appeared in the statute. The expanded