Variety of programs help people acquire or hold on to homes
With nearly 600 houses in some stage of foreclosure in San
Benito County, four mortgage assistance programs announced recently
could help keep some of those affected families stay in their
homes.
The California Housing Finance Agency announced that a $2
billion, federally-funded effort is aimed at helping low- and
moderate-income homeowners who are struggling to pay their
mortgages.
Variety of programs help people acquire or hold on to homes
With nearly 600 houses in some stage of foreclosure in San Benito County, four mortgage assistance programs announced recently could help keep some of those affected families stay in their homes.
The California Housing Finance Agency announced that a $2 billion, federally-funded effort is aimed at helping low- and moderate-income homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages.
Three of the programs offer mortgage assistance, while the other provides transition assistance to borrowers who execute a short-sale or deed-in-lieu transaction. All of the programs target homeowners who are either unemployed or facing another financial hardship and have fallen behind on their mortgages and owe significantly more than the value of their homes.
“No one program will solve the foreclosure crisis affecting our state, but together we hope to make a difference for as many families as possible,” said Norma Torres, chair of the California Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.
Christopher “C.J.” Valenzuela, the housing programs coordinator for San Benito County and the city of Hollister, said that while most local programs are designed to help first-time homebuyers acquire a home, assistance is available to homeowners who are trying to hold on.
The Hollister Redevelopment Agency recently entered into a contract with an organization to provide foreclosure prevention counseling services.
“We have a housing counselor at the city RDA offices all day long every Tuesday to meet with anyone in San Benito County who is at risk of losing their home,” he said, noting that the counseling is free and bilingual.
Despite a continued high number of homes either having received a notice of default, up for auction or bank-owned, Valenzuela said the number of mortgage defaults locally has “gone down a bit because banks are a little bit more open” to working with mortgage-holders and more loan-modification programs are available.
The RDA continues its first-time homebuyer assistance program, which offers up to $50,000 to people looking to buy their first home. More than $1.5 million has been allocated to the program since 2008. The city has also directed $1 million to a neighborhood stabilization program that helps finance the acquisition, rehabilitation and selling of abandoned and foreclosed homes to low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers.
“We’re trying to target different audiences to cover from A to Z,” Valenzuela said. “All of these programs help to mitigate the negative effects of residential foreclosures in our community.”
The county’s housing department also offers down payment assistance for up to 20 percent of the purchase price of a home.
A Hollister family of four, for example, can make no more than $97,300 in gross annual income to qualify for the city program, while the maximum income is $64,400 for the county program.
In addition to the mortgage assistance programs, the RDA is also helping fund the 72-unit Vista Meadows senior apartment complex on Park Street and the 25-unit Hillview single-family home development at Buena Vista Road near Central Avenue.
The federally-funded Keep Your Home California programs provide mortgage assistance of up to $3,000 per month for unemployed homeowners who are in imminent danger of defaulting on their home loans and offers funds to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments due to a “temporary change in household circumstance.” The program will provide up to $15,000 per household to reinstate mortgages to prevent foreclosures.
Money is also available to reduce the principal owed on a home mortgage when a low- or moderate-income homeowner is facing a serious financial hardship and owes significantly more than their home is worth.
As of last week, four mortgage services were participating in all four assistance programs while others, such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, CitiMortgage and Wells Fargo, are participating in some of the programs.
For more information on Keep Your Home California, call 888-954-5337 or check online at www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org.
Information about Hollister and San Benito County housing assistance programs, including mortgage counseling services, is available by calling C.J. Valenzuela at 636-4316.
