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Disaster Relief Options for FHA Homeowners

Uncategorized March 13, 2019

Was your home or your ability to make your mortgage payments harmed by an event that the President declared a disaster? You may qualify for relief to help you keep your home. Much of the mortgage industry and The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development are committed to assisting borrowers whose lives and livelihoods are thrown into turmoil by a disaster.

If you can’t pay your mortgage because of the disaster, your lender may be able to help you. If you are at risk of losing your home because of the disaster, your lender may stop or delay initiation of foreclosure for 90 days. Lenders may also waive late fees for borrowers who may become delinquent on their loans as a result of the disaster.

If you have a conventional mortgage, you are strongly encouraged to contact your lender for further information, and to see if you are eligible for relief.

If you have an FHA-insured mortgage, please continue reading to find out what options may be available to you.

How Can This FHA Disaster Relief Help Me?

HUD has instructed FHA lenders to use reasonable judgment in determining who is an “affected borrower.” Lenders are required to reevaluate each delinquent loan until reinstatement or foreclosure and to identify the cause of default. Contact your lender to let them know about your situation. Some of the actions that your lender may take are:

  • During the term of a moratorium, your loan may not be referred to foreclosure if you were affected by a disaster.
  • Your lender will evaluate you for any available loss mitigation assistance to help you retain your home.
  • Your lender may enter into a forbearance plan, or execute a loan modification or a partial claim, if these actions will help retain and pay for your home.
  • If saving your home is not feasible, lenders have some flexibility in using the pre-foreclosure sales program or may offer to accept a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

Section I – First, Answer These Basic Questions

  1. Did my home suffer damage in the disaster?
  2. Am I without other resources, such as insurance settlements, to catch up?

If the answer to these questions is yes, and you have missed mortgage payments, please continue to Section II.

If the answer to these questions is yes, and you believe you will miss future mortgage payments, please continue to Section IV.

Section II – Are You Eligible for a Foreclosure Moratorium

You may be eligible for FHA Disaster Relief if you are one of the affected borrowers as described below. You must be in one of three basic groups in order to qualify for a moratorium on foreclosure:

  1. You or your family live within the geographic boundaries of a Presidentially-declared disaster area, you are automatically covered by a 90-day foreclosure moratorium.
  2. You are a household member of someone who is deceased, missing or injured directly due to the disaster, you qualify for a moratorium.
  3. Your financial ability to pay your mortgage debt was directly or substantially affected by a disaster, you qualify for a moratorium.

If you are in one of the three groups above, please proceed to Section III. If not, please proceed to Section V.

Section III – Take Action to Qualify for Foreclosure Relief

A Foreclosure Moratorium applies only to borrowers who are delinquent on their FHA loan. If you are current on your loan payments, then you should continue to make them.

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Public Housing

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

Public Housing

What is Public Housing?

Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to high rise apartments for elderly families. There are approximately 1.2 million households living in public housing units, managed by some 3,300 HAs.

Questions?

The PIH Information and Resource Center is staffed to answer questions/inquiries from the public and PHAs regarding public housing and housing choice voucher programs and regulations.

  • PIH Customer Service Center (1-800-955-2232)

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Homeownership programs from HUD

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

Homeownership

Helping Public Housing Residents Buy Homes

HUD wants to help public housing residents become homeowners! If you’re a public housing resident, you may be able to convert your rent into a mortgage payment. Contact your local public housing agency for details.

Programs and Vouchers

Public Housing Homeownership Programs
A Public Housing Authority (PHA) may sell all, or a portion of, a public housing development to eligible residents or resident organizations, for purposes of homeownership.

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Public Housing Programs

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

Public Housing Programs

PIH Programs

Below is a summary of public housing programs within the Office of Public and Indian Housing:

Capital Fund
The Capital Fund provides funds to housing authorities to modernize public housing developments.

The PIH Office of Capital Improvements administers the Capital Fund. The Capital Fund provides funds, annually, to Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) for the development, financing, and modernization of public housing developments and for management improvements. The funds may not be used for luxury improvements, direct social services, cost funded by other HUD programs, and ineligible activities as determined by HUD on a case-by-case basis.

Demolition/Disposition
The Demo/Dispo program was created in an effort to help eliminate old, run down public housing.

Homeownership
A Public Housing Authority (PHA) may sell all, or a portion of, a public housing development to eligible residents or resident organizations, for purposes of homeownership, provided that a Homeownership Plan has been submitted by the PHA and has been approved by HUD.

HOPE VI
Since 1993, HOPE VI has been the engine driving the revitalization of the Nation’s most distressed public housing developments by providing grants and unprecedented flexibility to address the housing and social service needs of their residents.

Housing Choice Vouchers (Formerly Section 8)
Allow very low-income families to choose and lease or purchase safe, decent, and affordable privately-owned rental housing.

Mixed-Finance Public Housing
Mixed-Finance public housing allows HUD to mix public, private, and non-profit funds to develop and operate housing developments.  These new developments are built for residents with a wide range of incomes, and are designed to fit into the surrounding community.

Moderate Rehabilitation
Provides project-based rental assistance for low income families. The program was repealed in 1991 and no new projects are authorized for development. Assistance is limited to properties previously rehabilitated pursuant to a housing assistance payments (HAP) contract between an owner and a Public Housing Agency (PHA).

Moving to Work Demonstration (MTW)
MTW is a demonstration program that allows housing authorities (Has) to design and test ways to give incentives to families to become economically self-sufficient, achieve programmatic efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase housing choice for low-income households.

Operating Fund
The Public Housing Operating Fund provides operating subsidies to housing authorities (HAs) to assist in funding the operating and maintenance expenses of their own dwellings, in accordance with Section 9 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, as amended. The subsidies are required to help maintain services and provide minimum operating reserves.

Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Project (RHIIP)
Develops and implements plans which address HUD?s high risk rental housing subsidy programs.

Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) and Neighborhood Networks (NN)
The ROSS program links services to public housing residents by providing grants for supportive services, resident empowerment activities and activities to assist residents in becoming economically self-sufficient.

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Demolition/Disposition

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

Demolition/Disposition

De Minimis Demolition

In accordance with Section 18(f) of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 (1937 Act), in any 5-year period PHA may demolish not more than the lesser of 5 dwelling units or 5 percent of the total public housing dwelling units owned by the PHA, but only if the space occupied by the demolished unit is used for meeting the service or other needs of public housing residents or the demolished unit was beyond rep

Demolition

  • For the demolition of an entire development, the development is obsolete as to physical condition, location, or other factors, making it unsuitable for housing purposes, and no reasonable program of modifications is cost-effective to return the public housing project or portion of the project to its useful life.
  • For the demolition of a portion of a development, that portion of the development is obsolete as to physical condition, location, or other factors, making it unsuitable for housing purposes, and no reasonable program of modifications is cost-effective to return that portion to its useful life, and the demolition will ensure the viability of the remaining portion of the development by reducing density to permit better access by emergency, fire, or rescue services, or improving the marketability by reducing density to that of the neighborhood or other developments in the PHA’s inventory.

Disposition:

  • Due to a change in the neighborhood, the location of the development is no longer conducive to residential use.
  • The land on which the development was built is sufficiently valuable that the PHA can replace the existing development with an improved development at no cost to HUD.
  • Leasing the development to another entity, or transferring the title of the development via a sales contract, may be determined to be more cost-effective or efficient way for the development to be used for low-income or mixed-income housing, because that party will have access to funds not available to the PHA. (Note that a lease of more than one year is considered to be a disposition by HUD.)
  • The development includes vacant land or non-dwelling structures that exceeds the need of the development (after Date of Full Availability–DOFA).
  • The development includes vacant land or non-dwelling structures that are incidental to, or do not interfere with, the continued operation of the remaining portion of the development.
  • The PHA has otherwise determined that the disposition is appropriate for reasons that are consistent with its goals of the PHA and its PHA Plan and that are otherwise consistent with the U.S. Housing Act of 1937.

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HUD’s Public Housing Program

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

HUD’s Public Housing Program

WHAT IS PUBLIC HOUSING?
Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to highrise apartments for elderly families. There are approximately 1.2 million households living in public housing units, managed by some 3,300 HAs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers Federal aid to local housing agencies (HAs) that manage the housing for low-income residents at rents they can afford. HUD furnishes technical and professional assistance in planning, developing and managing these developments.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Public housing is limited to low-income families and individuals. An HA determines your eligibility based on: 1) annual gross income; 2) whether you qualify as elderly, a person with a disability, or as a family; and 3) U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status. If you are eligible, the HA will check your references to make sure you and your family will be good tenants. HAs will deny admission to any applicant whose habits and practices may be expected to have a detrimental effect on other tenants or on the project’s environment.

HAs use income limits developed by HUD. HUD sets the lower income limits at 80% and very low income limits at 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which you choose to live. Income limits vary from area to area so you may be eligible at one HA but not at another. The HA serving your community can provide you with the income levels for your area and family size, or you can also find the income limits here on the internet.

HOW DO I APPLY?
If you are interested in applying for public housing, contact your local HA. If you have trouble contacting the HA, contact the local HUD Field Office.

HOW DOES THE APPLICATION PROCESS WORK?
The application must be written. Either you or the HA representative will fill it out. An HA usually needs to collect the following information to determine eligibility:

(1) Names of all persons who would be living in the unit, their sex, date of birth, and relationship to the family head;

(2) Your present address and telephone number;

(3) Family characteristics (e.g., veteran) or circumstances (e.g., living in substandard housing) that might qualify the family for tenant selection preferences;

(4) Names and addresses of your current and previous landlords for information about your family’s suitability as a tenant;

(5) An estimate of your family’s anticipated income for the next twelve months and the sources of that income;

(6) The names and addresses of employers, banks, and any other information the HA would need to verify your income and deductions, and to verify the family composition; and

(7) The PHA also may visit you in your home to interview you and your family members to see how you manage the upkeep of you current home.

After obtaining this information, the HA representative should describe the public housing program and its requirements, and answer any questions you might have.

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Housing Choice Vouchers Fact Sheet

Uncategorized February 20, 2019

Housing Choice Vouchers Fact Sheet
What are housing choice vouchers?
The housing choice voucher program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments.

The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects.

Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies(PHAs). The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program.

A family that is issued a housing voucher is responsible for finding a suitable housing unit of the family’s choice where the owner agrees to rent under the program. This unit may include the family’s present residence. Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety, as determined by the PHA.

A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. Under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.

Am I eligible?

Eligibility for a housing voucher is determined by the PHA based on the total annual gross income and family size and is limited to US citizens and specified categories of non-citizens who have eligible immigration status. In general, the family’s income may not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which the family chooses to live. By law, a PHA must provide 75 percent of its voucher to applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30 percent of the area median income. Median income levels are published by HUD and vary by location. The PHA serving your community can provide you with the income limits for your area and family size.

During the application process, the PHA will collect information on family income, assets, and family composition. The PHA will verify this information with other local agencies, your employer and bank, and will use the information to determine program eligibility and the amount of the housing assistance payment

If the PHA determines that your family is eligible, the PHA will put your name on a waiting list, unless it is able to assist you immediately. Once your name is reached on the waiting list, the PHA will contact you and issue to you a housing voucher.

How do I apply?
If you are interested in applying for a voucher, contact the local PHA. For further assistance, please contact the HUD Office nearest to you.

Local preferences and waiting list – what are they and how do they affect me?
Since the demand for housing assistance often exceeds the limited resources available to HUD and the local housing agencies, long waiting periods are common. In fact, a PHA may close its waiting list when it has more families on the list than can be assisted in the near future.

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Head Start programs

Uncategorized February 19, 2019

Head Start programs promote school readiness of children ages birth to five from low-income families by supporting the development of the whole child.

Head Start and Early Head Start programs offer a variety of service models, depending on the needs of the local community. Many Head Start and Early Head Start programs are based in centers and schools. Other programs are located in child care centers and family child care homes. Some programs offer home-based services that assign dedicated staff who conduct weekly visits to children in their own home and work with the parent.

Head Start programs support children’s growth and development in a positive learning environment through a variety of services, which include

  • Early learning: Children’s readiness for school and beyond is fostered through individualized learning experiences. Through relationships with adults, play, and planned and spontaneous instruction, children grow in many aspects of development. Children progress in social skills and emotional well-being, along with language and literacy learning, and concept development
  • Health: Each child’s perceptual, motor, and physical development is supported to permit them to fully explore and function in their environment. All children receive health and development screenings, nutritious meals, oral health and mental health support. Programs connect families with medical, dental, and mental health services to ensure that children are receiving the services they need.
  • Family well-being: Parents and families are supported in achieving their own goals, such as housing stability, continued education, and financial security. Programs support and strengthen parent-child relationships and engage families around children’s learning and development.

Delivered through 1,700 agencies in local communities, Head Start and Early Head Start programs provide services to over a million children every year, in every U.S. state and territory, in farmworker camps, and in over 155 tribal communities. Head Start programming is responsive to the ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage of each child and family. More than 80 percent of children served by Head Start programs are 3- and 4-year-olds. Infants, toddlers and pregnant women make up just under 20% of Head Start enrollment, and are served through Early Head Start programs. Early Head Start programs are available to the family until the child turns 3 years old and is ready to transition into Head Start or another pre-K program.

Find out more in the comprehensive Head Start services video

Head Start FAQ

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  • HUD's Public Housing Program

    by on February 20, 2019 - 0 Comments

    HUD’s Public Housing Program WHAT IS PUBLIC HOUSING? Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to highrise apartments for elderly families. There are approximately 1.2 million households living […]

  • Housing Choice Vouchers Fact Sheet

    by on February 20, 2019 - 0 Comments

    Housing Choice Vouchers Fact Sheet What are housing choice vouchers? The housing choice voucher program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants […]

  • Public Housing Programs

    by on February 20, 2019 - 0 Comments

    Public Housing Programs PIH Programs Below is a summary of public housing programs within the Office of Public and Indian Housing: Capital Fund The Capital Fund provides funds to housing authorities to modernize public housing developments. The PIH Office of Capital Improvements administers the Capital Fund. The Capital Fund provides funds, annually, to Public Housing Agencies […]

  • Homeownership programs from HUD

    by on February 20, 2019 - 0 Comments

    Homeownership Helping Public Housing Residents Buy Homes HUD wants to help public housing residents become homeowners! If you’re a public housing resident, you may be able to convert your rent into a mortgage payment. Contact your local public housing agency for details. Programs and Vouchers Public Housing Homeownership Programs A Public Housing Authority (PHA) may […]

  • Public Housing

    by on February 20, 2019 - 0 Comments

    Public Housing What is Public Housing? Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to high rise apartments for elderly families. There are approximately 1.2 million households living in […]




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