By Jon Healey
As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the federal government awarded California $1 billion to help homeowners who fell behind on their mortgage payments during the pandemic. The state has used the money to offer up to $80,000 to low- and moderate-income homeowners with mortgage debt, overdue property taxes and deferred monthly payments.
These are not loans that must be repaid. Instead, they’re payments the state makes on the borrowers’ behalf to clear their mortgage or property-tax debt.
The thing is, homeowners haven’t exactly beaten down the state’s doors for the free help — not because they don’t need it, but because they may not know about it or know how to get it. So the California Mortgage Relief program has repeatedly extended the aid to more homeowners, and is now offering help to borrowers whose troubles began long after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
In the latest extension, assistance is available to qualified homeowners who’ve missed at least two mortgage payments by Feb. 1 and are still in arrears, or who’ve missed at least one property tax payment by Feb. 1. Various restrictions apply, but the main ones are that aid is available only for owner-occupied homes and that an applicant’s total household income must be no more than 150% of the area median income. In Los Angeles County, that’s $132,450 for an individual and $189,150 for a family of four.
State officials have said the program will keep operating until all $1 billion has been awarded. According to the program’s data dashboard, a little less than a quarter of the money remains. Nearly 30,700 households statewide have seen their debts reduced by an average of $25,000.
Applications are available only online at camortgagerelief.org. For help filling one out, you can call the program’s contact center at (888) 840-2594, where assistance is available in English and Spanish.
If you don’t have access to the internet or a computer, you can ask a housing counselor to assist you. For help finding a counselor certified by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, call (800) 569-4287. You may also get help from the company servicing your mortgage.
Read more at: LA Times
