Friday, May 30, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.
St. Rose Dominican Hospital is publicizing the benefits of its employee home buyer assistance program, saying it helps retain and attract employees in the Las Vegas area's intensely competitive health care job market.
Janice Inholt, a maternity nurse who has worked at St. Rose Dominican Hospital for 10 years, said the program has helped some nurses realize that their employer values them.
"They are trying to encourage nurses to stay and be loyal," Inholt, 49, said. "You can work anywhere and it is very easy to go anywhere if you are unhappy."
June marks National Homeownership month and some local organizations are working to encourage homeownership within the community.
St. Rose touted its Employer-Assisted Housing program at an event this morning. It offers eligible employees up to $2,500 for down payment and closing costs toward the purchase of a home or the refinancing of a home.
Separately, Victory Missionary Baptist Church, 500 W. Monroe Ave. in Las Vegas, is hosting a "Road to Homeownership" housing fair Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., will be the keynote speaker at 11:30 a.m. and three different workshops will guide prospective homeowners through the process of buying a home.
Nurse Inholt said she and her husband, Mike, were thinking about selling their two-story home and buying a single-story house, and said their decision to buy came after the hospital's program was announced to employees earlier this year.
"I think the main reason they offered it is to show appreciation for their nurses," she said. "(The program) has helped some of the other nurses."
Since the program began at the hospital in February, 16 employees have accessed the down payment assistance, said Candyce Wehrkamp, vice president of human resources for St. Rose Dominican.
Employees must be eligible for benefits and have worked at the hospital for at least one year before becoming eligible for the hospital's program. The loan is forgiven after the employee has worked at the hospital for three years.
Wehrkamp said homeownership brings stability, both in the workplace and the community. She said the program was launched, along with other benefit programs such as free health care, to encourage the company's 1,500 employees to stay with St. Rose. The company has two hospitals in Henderson and plans to build a third in Las Vegas' Spring Valley area.
"People are coming here from different areas of the country, making it through a year, year and a half and leaving," Wehrkamp said. "But if they get into a home, establish roots, they get involved in the community and are better employees for us."
With St. Rose and other companies planning to open three hospitals in the next three years, hospital staff retention -- especially of nurses -- is crucial.
Nevada averages 520 nurses per 100,000 population, while the national average is 782 nurses per 100,000 people, according to a 2001 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report on nurse staffing.
Home lender Fannie Mae worked with the hospital to develop its home buyer assistance plan, and will purchase the loans originated by lenders through the program.
Corie Craig, Fannie Mae senior deputy director for the Nevada partnership office, said the program has more benefits than helping get people into homes.
"We're finding with a lot of companies there is a psychological benefit as well," she said. "If an employer has helped an employee get into a home, they will think twice before going to someone on the other side of town."
Nationwide, Fannie Mae has helped more than 450 public and private employers set up a home buyer benefit plan. In Las Vegas, Fannie Mae has helped JD Construction and Nevada State Bank in setting up home buyer assistance programs.
Nevada State Bank President Bill Martin said the bank has not used the program, Home Ownership Program for Employees, or HOPE, as a marketing tool to attract potential employees.
"It was just a benefit, an attempt to help lower to moderate income employees to reach the often unreachable goal of homeownership," he said.
But Martin said the program has had a positive effect on retention.
"It is a great retention tool because the debt is forgiven after five years," he said.
The Nevada State Bank program is open to full-time and part-time employees whose income does not exceed the Housing and Urban Development's median income, which varies annually. Employees must have worked at the bank for one continuous year for full-time employees and two years for part-time employees. The bank employs about 800 people.
If eligible, the bank provides its employees a 2 percent down payment assistance and a maximum 3 percent for closing cost assistance, not to exceed $5,000.
The HOPE program has helped about 20 employees since it began in 1998, and there are currently 10 applications under review.
"To people who want homeownership this can give them the first step," Martin said.
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