On Wednesday, October 20, during a press conference call, Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) announced that unemployed or underemployed homeowners in Lee County, who are having difficulty paying their mortgages, will be able to apply for financial assistance from the Florida Hardest-Hit Fund (HHF) beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, October 25. The program is only available in Lee County as a pilot for the subsequent 90-day time period.
“Operating the pilot in Lee County gives us a representative sampling of homeowners for which the Hardest-Hit funding was designed to help,” said David Westcott, director of Homeownership Programs at Florida Housing. “We will use the information gathered from the pilot to ensure we are prepared for statewide implementation. We know there are homeowners who will benefit from this financial assistance, and we are eager to move forward.”
Florida Housing has two HHF programs, as follows:
· Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMAP) will provide up to 18 months of first mortgage payments directly to the lender on behalf unemployed/underemployed homeowners until they can resume making payments on their own.
· Mortgage Loan Reinstatement Payment (MLRP) Program will be used to bring a delinquent mortgage current for homeowners who have returned to work or recovered from underemployment.
UMAP and MLRP program funds will be in the form of a 0% percent, deferred-payment loan; the loan can be forgiven over a five-year period, at a rate of 20% each year.
“As we move through the application and eligibility determination process during this pilot period, we will communicate with the large banks and loan servicers to keep them informed on the number of borrowers they have who may qualify for this assistance,” said Steve Auger, executive director at Florida Housing. “Our hope is that this information will be helpful to [the banks] as they determine how best to work with us as we prepare to take the program statewide early next year.”
As it stands now, if a homeowner is otherwise qualified to receive assistance from either or both of the HHF programs, but the bank or lender cannot accept payments, that homeowner will not be able to participate in either program.
To apply for financial assistance from the fund, homeowners will need to log onto the website www.FLHardestHitHelp.org. The site contains all the information users will need to begin the application process, including a program fact sheet, answers to frequently asked questions and links to resources that may be helpful to those experiencing economic challenges. Specifically, there are links to employment resources available through the Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI), Florida’s lead state workforce agency.
“This critical assistance provided through Florida Housing will help people challenged by unemployment to stay in their homes,” said Cynthia R. Lorenzo, director for the Agency. “The pilot program will provide an additional resource for families during these difficult economic times, and our workforce partner Southwest Florida Works is a valuable resource for Lee County homeowners who are ramping up their employment search. Florida’s workforce system provides a wide array of job placement and job training programs at nearly 100 One-Stop Career Centers throughout the state.”
First announced on February 19 by the US Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the “Housing Finance Agency (HFA) Innovation Fund for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets” (HFA Hardest-Hit Fund) provides federal funding to states hardest hit by the aftermath of the burst of the housing bubble. To date, $7.6 billion has been infused into the HFA Hardest-Hit Fund for 18 states and the District of Columbia; Florida’s total allocation currently stands at $1 billion.
Treasury has approved both of Florida Housing’s programs to provide temporary assistance to eligible unemployed or underemployed homeowners. The goal is to help them sustain and keep their homes, ultimately, to avoid foreclosure.
