Florida Launches Pilot Program for Unemployed Homeowners

On Monday, the ""Florida Housing Finance Corporation"":http://apps.floridahousing.org will launch a pilot program to offer financial assistance to unemployed and underemployed homeowners who are having difficulty paying their mortgages.

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State housing finance agencies across the country have received money through the federal government's Hardest Hit Fund to develop targeted foreclosure-prevention initiatives in their local communities.

The pilot being rolled out by Florida Housing Finance Corp. will test the waters for the Sunshine State's ""planned use of its federal dollars"":http://www.FLHardestHitHelp.org.

The effort is two-fold. The Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMAP) will provide up to 18 months of first mortgage payments directly to the lender on behalf of unemployed/underemployed homeowners until they can resume making payments on their own.

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The 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.

Assistance is only available to Lee County homeowners during the 90-day pilot period, but officials say they plan to go statewide during the first part of 2011.

""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.""

Both UMAP and MLRP program funds will be in the form of a zero percent, deferred-payment loan. The loan can be forgiven over a five-year period, at a rate of 20 percent 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.

Auger added, ""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.""

Florida's total allocation of ""Hardest Hit"" funding currently stands at $1 billion.