Homeowners who are experiencing financial hardship may qualify for help with homes they own and live in. If you have a reduced income as a result of unemployment, lowered wages, or another change in circumstances causing you to have trouble making mortgage payments, paying for renovations or repairs to your house, condominium, or other dwelling, or relocating under threat of foreclosure, you may qualify for low income homeowner assistance from the U.S. government. This can take the form of federal programs providing government grants, mortgage loans, foreclosure counseling or advisory help, and more.
Making Home Affordable - Help for Low Income Homeowners
The Making Home Affordable Program is an ambitious federal measure launched by the Obama Administration, comprised of several programs designed to help prop up a hurting housing market and economy by helping homeowners with various forms of assistance.
There are programs for a homeowner with a good credit history as well as assistance for people with not-so-good credit. Whether the applicants are low income or not, the various Making Home Affordable programs usually require that recipients are able to make steady payments under the new terms.
Some programs falling under the auspices of the Making Home Affordable Program include:
- Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, which helps homeowners refinance loans via Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae
- Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, which can aid in loan modifications
- Second Lien Modification Program, or 2MP, which works in conjunction with HAMP
- Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, or HAFA, which provides better terms for homeowners in foreclosure
- Home Affordable Unemployment Program, or UP, which assists homeowners who have experienced job loss
- Hope for Homeowners, a program that predates Making Home Affordable and can provide refinancing assistance to homeowners at risk of foreclosure and bankruptcy.
- Hardest Hit Fund, which helps in tandem with state efforts, targeting states identified as being most affected by the housing market plunge.
Emergency Homeowner Loan Program
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is launching the Emergency Homeowner Loan Program at the end of this year to help homeowners who have experienced either job loss or reduction, or medical difficulties. Forms of assistance include mortgage payment assistance, home insurance payments, and help with late taxes. Eligible homeowners can receive loans of as much as $50,000 over a period of two years, with zero percent interest.
Low Income Homeowner Assistance With Repairs
Those individuals and families in rural areas who need to make repairs to their dwellings for reasons of safety and health may be eligible for assistance. The Rural Development Office, a subdivision of the United States Department of Agriculture, has programs for low income rural homeowners such as:
- Section 502 Direct Housing Loans
- Very Low Income Housing Repair Program, providing grants as well as loans
- Section 184 Loan Guarantee program for Native Americans and other qualifying native groups
In addition, the Section 203(k) Rehab Mortgage Insurance Program offered by Housing and Urban Development provides home rehabilitation assistance to homeowners living in single family dwellings through third party lenders approved by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), and this help is not limited to rural areas - though the caveat is that it's also not specifically for low income people.
Help Forestalling Foreclosure
Rural Development also offers grants called Technical and Supervisory Grants to indirectly help low income families prevent foreclosure by way of counseling through various organizations such as nonprofits and Tribes - in other words, it's the organizations that receive the grants, not individuals.
Homeowners Meeting Qualifications Can Receive Help Through Government Programs
Mortgage loans, repair loans or grants, and foreclosure counseling are some of the forms of assistance available to low income homeowners who demonstrate reliable creditworthiness and sufficient need. While these programs are not able to help all underwater homeowners and do not eliminate the debt, they can aid many people, either directly or indirectly, who find themselves experiencing financial hardship during the economic downturn afflicting the job and housing markets.
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Kerry Bakerson - Kerry's fiction has been published by Mundania Press. A former jewelry designer and bookseller, Kerry is now a full-time web content ...
