First-time homebuyers in Suffolk can get help with a down payment through a county program.

Suffolk County's Down Payment Assistance Program helps first-time homeowners buy a house by providing grants to those struggling to put a down payment on a home.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced Monday the program for 2019 is open now through the end of the year.

Suffolk County residents will be able to apply for a grant of up to $14,000 to put down on a new home.

"We know that down payments are often times that significant hurdle that people can't get over," Bellone said.

The money comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Eligibility is based on income and family size.

The program helped Lee Ann MacDonald buy a home in Medford last year. She's a single parent with two kids.

"Being a single mom, two children, paycheck to paycheck, I didn't have the capabilities or the assets of putting thousands of dollars to the side. So without the program, I wouldn't have been able to do this at all," MacDonald said.

Officials say only 25 grants will be handed out this year.

Bellone says the Down Payment Assistance Program has helped nearly 2,000 people with down payments since the program launched in 1993.

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