Georgia Mortgage Payment Assistance Program.
Georgia is creating a Mortgage Payment Assistance (MPA) program as part of the hardest hit housing markets fund. The primary goal of the program is to provide zero percent interest rate loans to homeowners across the state, who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, are unemployed, have had a reduction in income or who underemployed. The program will help those Georgia individuals who are in danger of losing their home to foreclosure.
The Mortgage Payment Assistance plan will provide qualified individuals with a loan. There are a number of restrictions as to what the loan can be used for. Funds can be used by homeowners in Georgia to pay their monthly mortgage payment (including expenses such as taxes and insurance) until the homeowner secures new employment or has an increase in their income. Or the low interest rate loan could also be used to provide a one time lump sum payment that will bring the outstanding mortgage balance and any arreages current.
Focus of the program
The number one goal of the program is to stop and/or preserve homeownership by preventing foreclosures across the state. To meet this end, the hardest hit fund will focus on those unemployed homeowners who are unable to pay their monthly mortgage payments and who may be in danger of losing their homes to a foreclosure filing. It will focus on those individuals who, with a little mortgage help and some short term, temporary assistance are likely to be successful in preventing a foreclosure and maintaining their homeownership.
So there are two main groups of Georgia homeowners that are targeted by the plan. The first being underemployed or unemployed homeowners who are unable to make their mortgage payments due to a job loss or a reduction of their income. The loss of employment has to be no fault of their own and also unexpected.
The Georgia Mortgage Assistance Program can even help currently employed homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage because of a prior job loss. In other words, maybe someone is now working but they are struggling because they are still trying to catch up from that period of unemployment. So these individuals will be able to resume current and future payments on their mortgage without additional assistance, but they may need some type of onetime financial assistance or cash grant to bring their loan current to avoid foreclosure. The hardest hit program can help in this case as well.
Types of mortgage assistance provided
The Georgia Housing and Finance Authority will provide qualified homeowners with a 0% interest, non-recourse, subordinate, deferred-payment loan. The money will be used to make future mortgage payments or provide a one time payment to pay back amounts. The loan will be used to provide short-term financial relief and mortgage assistance to prevent foreclosures for unemployed homeowners while these individuals look for a new job or complete a education program or job training program.
As mentioned above, the loan from Mortgage Payment Assistance can also be used to provide one-time assistance to those homeowners who are re-employed but need help to bring their mortgage current and get back on track.
The GHFA government agency will pay the homeowner’s mortgage and even also pay for their other housing-related expenses (such as insurance, property taxes, and other similar expenses) These payments will be made directly to the lender or mortgage servicer and will not be paid directly to the homeowner.
The program will be run by local non-profits and agencies. Call the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority at (404) 679-4840 to learn more about the loan program and to get more details on the hardest hit fund.
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