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$1 Billion Foreclosure Assistance Program Kicks Off In Florida
April 19, 2011
A $1 billion program aimed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure kicked off Monday, though it is less ambitious than originally proposed.
The Florida Housing Corp. began taking applications Monday morning for the federally funded program that will provide nearly 40,000 unemployed and underemployed homeowners with up to six months of cash assistance to make payments on mortgages that would otherwise go unpaid.
Created by the U.S. Treasury in February 2010, the Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets sets aside funds from the 2008 federal stimulus package to five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada, states with the highest levels of foreclosures. The program was later expanded to 18 states. Florida’s cut to date is $1 billion of nearly $9 billion in federal funds.
Florida is the last state of five original recipients to get its program underway. The program was rolled out last year in Lee County as a pilot. The region was the epicenter of a housing bust resulting in thousands of foreclosures.
“For the homeowners who qualify, this temporary relief from their mortgage payments will provide some ‘breathing room’ so they can focus on becoming re-employed at a level that will allow them to resume making payments on their own,” said Steve Auger, executive director of Florida Housing Finance Corp.
Florida’s original program would have provided as much as $35,000 in assistance over an 18 month period for homeowners who were looking for work and behind on their mortgages. After taking office, however, Gov. Rick Scott ordered a review of the program and changed its parameters.
The new program reduced the maximum award up to $12,000 and shortens the duration of benefits, which advocates said could reduce the program’s effectiveness for recipients whose job search takes longer to complete, as Florida’s economy recovers more slowly than other states.
The program also offers up to $6,000 for residents who have gone back to work to pay delinquent mortgage payments.
“Shortening it to six months is going to create more of a challenge,” said Jaimie Ross, president of the Florida Housing Coalition. But, she said, “the coalition is going to do everything it can to make the program a success.”
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida
Comments
7 Responses to “$1 Billion Foreclosure Assistance Program Kicks Off In Florida”
Some people really do need help….then you have the usual moochers, who have always TAKEN because they were offered a handout!!!! Theis comes way too late for some folks. Look around our communities & see all the vacant homes. I have never quite understood why these mortgage companies are not willing to take something of a payment instead of nothing. Houses deteriorate so badly without anyone living in them. If these companies would work with people instead of harassing them, everyone would be better off & maybe the taxpayers wouldn’t have to absorb so much debt.
do I agree with this? well lets just say there is a lot of fat to trim with the federal gov.
I hope it help’s some families that really need it, because we are all paying for it!
here is the link to the Florida’s Hardest Hit web site, they have the application packages.
https://www.flhardesthithelp.org/
Where is it going to end. The Florida real estate market is not going to come back as long as you have scam builders selling homes that have Chinese Drywall. Will you tell me what person in their retirement approaching years would buy in Florida just to get ripped off. Just maybe if Florida took the money and invested it in prosecuteing those who covered up CDW like the builder and supplier that created this mess by hiding it ,Florida real estate could recover. The good ol boy mentality of protecting your own is not going to work this time. State officials need to procescute those involve d in this for Fraud,when you get together as companies and defraud the public it is time for law enforcement to do their job. And if they won’t then it must be done at the Federal level. I call it as I see it Fraud. Don’t get ripped off in Florida buying homes that are contaminated with Chinese Drywall.
What an injustice- I did the right thing, I built a small home that I could afford, my family went without so we could pay our mortgage and the government takes my tax dollars to bail out people who spent way above thier means. It makes me sick to know that some goobers million dollar mansion is being paid for by my tax dollars. Tear down all the beach houses and condos if they can’t pay for them. Stop insuring them also so our insrance rates do not rise again after we pay to rebuld them. What a crock!!!
Thanks for the info! How do you to apply?
So, our Congress can not quit spending. A billion for foreclosures just in Florida, 39 million for Rebuild in Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties, and 100 thousand for that stupid helicopter in Escambia. How are any of these things Federal?