H2O Privacy Policy

HAMC and H2O respect your right to privacy and will protect it when you contact us in any way, use our services, apply and purchase a home or visit our web site.

Here are some things you should know about each of these :

Contacting US

H2O will not share your personal information with anybody unless we have your permission. Phone calls asking for informarion on our program are logged only for the purpose of answering questions and/or sending out requested materials. If we contact you, it will be in order to answer a question, respond to a request for an application, or to process or clearify required information.

You have the right to ask why information is needed and how it will be used. If have a right to refuse any information, knowing that this may keep us from providing any service to you. We will try to answer all questions in a time, accurate manner.

Interest Form

Initial contact with interested homebuyers is usually made through the "Interest form". The purpose of this form is to gather basic information so that we may contact you and explain our program. No confidential or financial information is required on this form.

Applying to purchase a house

Filling out and submitting the Application Form will require the disclosure of financial information both to H2O and to associated parties (financial counselors, credit verification companies and lenders). Any information collected by H2O or HAMC wil be used for an initial determination of eligibility for the H2O program. Information on the Interest form will not be given to other parties. Note that no private or confidential information, as defined under Privacy Act legislation, is required. This means we are nots asking for bank account or Social Security numbers. Upon receiving an Application Form, H2O assumes the information provided on that form is accurate and complete and will use it to make a pre-determination of eligibility. Final approval and acceptance into the program, and authorization for purchase of a home, is contingent upon further verification of income, financial history and proof of identity by the applicant and household to the satisfaction of H2O and any financial institution, commercial enterprise or governamental agency involved in the transaction of a H2O home.

HUD Reporting Requirements

HUD has specific policies that require reporting of department and agency activities, this includes information about those enrolled in HUD-subsidized programs. HAMC, H2O, the Maricopa County Community Development department and HUD certified counseling agencies are required to use automated client management systems that send information to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. H2O will only report information required by official policy to monitor the use of HUD funds and insure complainance with federal rules and regulations.

HUD Use of Client Information

HUD follows strict rules to protect your confidentiality. The personal data collected, such as name and address, are protected by the Privacy Act. You will never be named in any reports. Although your information and responses may be looked at individually by HUD, or contractors hired by HUD to collect and analyze the data, your name will not be associated with any analysis of the data. Only results from groups of people will be reported. Contractors to HUD are covered by the same requirements to protect privacy as HUD staff and must demonstrate that they have systems in place to protect against data disclosure.

Emails to us

When you send us email we won't keep or share your email address with anyone outside of H2O, HAMC staff, contractors, and other federal representatives. We'll only use your email address to respond to your request for information or to process your application. If you sign up for an email list, we'll only send you the kinds of information you've requested.

Our Website

When you browse, read pages or download information on a website, domain hosting systems automatically gather and store certain technical information about your visit. This information never identifies who you are. The information collected is: the Internet domain, an IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web), the type of browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, safari, Firefox, etc.) and operating system (Windows, Unix) used to access our site; the date and time you access our site; the pages you visit; and if you linked to our website from another website, the address of that website.

This information is only used to evaluate our website content and outreach. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our site, their interests and the types of technology our visitors use. We never track or record information about individuals and their visits.

We do not use "cookies."These are small amounts of text stored on your computer that record information about your visit to our site.

Links to Other Sites

Our website has links to many other web sites. When you go to another site, you are subject to the privacy and security policies of that site. Linking to a web site does not constitute an endorsement by H2O or HAMC, or any of its employees, of the sponsors of the site or of the information and products presented on that site.