New Jersey Home Keeper (NJHK) program

Over $100 million in federal government funds will be provided to the state of New Jersey to help people prevent a foreclosure from occurring, or to assist those homeowners who are currently in the process. The money is part of the federal government’s hardest hit fund.

Type of mortgage assistance offered

The assistance program, which will be formally known as the New Jersey Home Keeper program (NJHK), will provide homeowners with several different options and types of services. Among the programs being offered include deferred payment mortgage loans, as well as a loan product with a zero percent interest rate. The loans provided to homeowners throughout the state will be capped at $48,000 per qualified household and the term of the loan will not exceed 24 months. The average assistance loan provided to borrowers is expected to be $38,000.

New Jersey Home Keeper program eligibility

With the nation in the midst of a terrible recession, and the resulting high unemployment rate that is resulting from the weak economy, the program is targeted to help New Jersey homeowners who are unemployed and underemployed through no fault of their own. Another focus is on those who have had a signigificant reduction in their income. The job loss they are experiencing needs to be preventing the borrowers from being able to financially pay their mortgage payments on time, and they need to be therefore in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

The program will provide time to these homeowner to seek re-employment or complete job training programs. So the aid being provided is targeted, and it is not a charity program. In addition, the financial assistance will also help with mortgage arrears or missed payments that may have accrued due to lost employment income.

New Jersey agency running the Home Keeper program

The allocation and funding will be distributed directly to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) through the federal government Hardest-Hit Fund, which is a federal foreclosure-prevention initiative. As indicated above the assistance will be provided under the name of the New Jersey Home Keeper (NJHK) program. All applicants and funding will be administered through the HMFA and the program was created with a specific goal in mind, and that is to assist those unemployed and underemployed homeowners, and the program will help them make their monthly mortgage payments for up to 24 month period of time.

In addition to the Home Keeper program, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency recommends other programs and solutions to people in need. They include the New Jersey foreclosure mediation program as well a NJ Hope. You can call the agency at 609-278-7400 to learn about any of these foreclosure assistance programs.

	By Jon McNamara
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