I'd say it's admittedly a little more nuanced than that, but yeah, basically.
While you weren't required to stay in the Disney-owned housing (Vista Way, Commons, Patterson, Chatham Square), if you were living in one of those, you had to pay rent weekly, which was taken directly out of our paycheck each week. So whatever hit our accounts was money earned minus rent, which varied depending on apartment complex, # of roommates, and style of apartment.
For the first week to week and a half, before we were at out location, we weren't getting paid. I think move-ins were usually on Monday, we wouldn't do Traditions until the following weekend, and then there could still potentially be a couple days until we were training, and even longer until the paycheck actually came in.
So because Disney doesn't like to miss out on a single dollar, we had to put down a deposit to cover the rent for that first week or two since they weren't able to take it from our paychecks. In the case that you decided to find a non-Disney owned apartment, you could get most if not all of it refunded, though I think they still kept some to go to housing events- grocery bingo, movie nights, dances, meet n' greets, etc.
But I do think if you just decided not to go to your program- such as in the case of not liking your role- the contract signed in the beginning indicated Disney could just keep the deposit.
