Florida Housing Extends Eligibility for Hardest Hit Fund Pilot

In October, the ""Florida Housing Finance Corporation"":http://www.floridahousing.org/ launched a program designed to help unemployed and underemployed homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages.

[IMAGE]

The pilot program is currently being offered to Lee County homeowners but will be expanded statewide in early 2011.

This week the corporation announced they will open the eligibility requirements for the program, allowing homeowners who are up to 180 days delinquent on their mortgages to qualify for the service.

The program was designed as a way to distribute money the state received from the government's Hardest Hit Fund. Previously it was only available to homeowners 90 or fewer days delinquent on mortgage payments.

The online application will remain open until the program has received 1,000 applications.

[COLUMN_BREAK]

""Since the program opened last month in Lee County, we have seen may applications from homeowners who are more than 90 days past due with their mortgage payments, yet meet the other qualifications to receive assistance from the HHF,"" said Steve Auger, executive director of Florida Housing.

Florida Housing has developed two ways of helping homeowners through the HHF.

The first is the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMAP), which will provide up to 18 months of mortgage payments to the lender on behalf of unemployed or underemployed homeowners until they can get back on their feet.

The other program is the Mortgage Loan Reinstatement Payment Program, which will be used to bring a delinquent mortgage current for homeowners who have found work or are no longer underemployed.

Both programs offer funds in the form of a zero percent deferred-payment loan that can be forgiven over a period of five years.

""Right now, this is the only change we have made to the eligibility requirements for the HHF program, but we think it will make a world of difference,"" said David Westcott, director of Homeownership Programs at Florida Housing. Westcott encourages homeowners who thought about applying but did not because their mortgages were more than 90 days late, to visit the Web site and apply.

""There is still time,"" he said.