Senator Boxer on California’s Mortgage Assistance Programs   

Wednesday, September 1, 2010  

Dear Friend:

Beginning in November, thousands of unemployed California homeowners can receive emergency assistance enabling them to make their mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure.

The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that it will invest more than $476 million in the State of California’s “Keep Your Home” Unemployment Mortgage Assistance program.  This program is being designed to help eligible out-of-work California homeowners make their mortgage payments while they look for new employment.  It is anticipated that this program will assist nearly 35,000 homeowners throughout the state.

Established by the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), the Keep Your Home programs aim to preserve homeownership among middle class California homeowners by reducing the number of delinquencies, thereby helping to stabilize California communities hit by foreclosures and declining property values.

To qualify for Keep Your Home’s Unemployment Mortgage Assistance program, homeowners must be eligible for unemployment benefits, meet income guidelines, live in their home, and be fewer than 90 days behind on their mortgage payments.  For borrowers who have refinanced their loans, only those who did so to change the interest rate or the length of their loan are eligible; the assistance is not available to borrowers who refinanced in order to pull cash out of their property.

If you or anyone you know could benefit from this program, you can get more information from CalHFA’s website at http://www.keepyourhomecalifornia.com  

I am working every day to create jobs and turn our economy around, but I know that many Californians still can’t find work and need help to make their mortgage payments.  The Unemployment Mortgage Assistance program will help unemployed homeowners meet this urgent need.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer