18 States Work Out Programs to Help Distressed Homeowners with $4.1 Billion

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Market Trends, Mortgage / Finance, Real Estate

If your state is not among the 32 states implementing the Emergency Homeownership Loan Program, then your state is among the 18 states that were granted $4.1 billion in Hardest Hit Fund money earlier this year.

In some of these 18 states, programs to help troubled homeowners are already in place while the others are still waiting for approval from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department. States like Florida have been prompted to revise their programs while other states like Arizona are already carrying out their programs.

Ten of the 18 states helped through the Hardest Hit Fund program are listed below together with their allocations:

1. California   $1,975,334,026
2. Florida   $1,057,839,381
3. Ohio   $570,395,235
4. Michigan   $498,606,179
5. North Carolina   $482,781,565
6. Illinois   $445,603,831
7. Georgia   $339,255,832
8. New Jersey   $300,548,507
9. South Carolina   $295,431,200
10. Arizona   $267,766,006

The eight other states are Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee, Nevada, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Rhode Island. The 19th recipient is Washington, D.C. Following are updates on the progress of five states in carrying out their programs:

California:  Keep Your Home California

This program targets low-income and moderate-income households at risk of foreclosure, particularly families struggling due to unemployment, disability, illness or death in the family. However, the California Housing Finance Agency says that it is not yet accepting applications for help under the program. It’s advising troubled California homeowners to contact HUD-certified counselors.

Arizona:  Save My Home AZ

Under this program which is run by the Arizona Department of Housing, qualified homeowners will receive assistance of up to $50,000 to reduce their mortgage principal and their monthly mortgage payments. To be qualified, a homeowner must have been rejected by or removed from the Home Affordable Modification Program and the home must be a primary residence. There are also factors considered including monthly gross income, type of loan, amount of loan, level of delinquency and cause of hardship.

Michigan: Helping Hardest Hit Homeowners

Under this plan, the federal funds will be spent to help in three ways: provision of mortgage payment aid to homeowners receiving unemployment benefits, payment of mortgage loan arrears for borrowers who fell into default because of circumstances beyond their control, and reduction of mortgage principal for homeowners struggling from substantially-reduced income.

Ohio: Save the Dream Ohio

This initiative, which aims to help 26,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure, offers four types of assistance, namely delinquency rescue payment, partial mortgage payment, principal reduction and transitional assistance.

Florida: Mortgage Intervention Assistance

Florida’s program will first be implemented in Lee County, the chosen pilot site, before it will be made available statewide. Florida Housing Finance Corp. says it hopes to launch the pilot program this October and move forward with the statewide implementation by February next year. The state agency estimates that with the increased funding, it would be able to help about 20,000 distressed homeowners and increase the number of monthly payments it would make on behalf of qualified homeowners.

To check if a Hardest Hit Fund program is already helping distressed homeowners in your state, contact your HUD-certified counselor or your state housing agency.