Temporary Mortgage Help

• The federal government's Home Affordable Unemployment Program provides temporary help unemployed homeowners. This program creates partial payment deferment plans to ease the financial burden of unemployed homeowners. This program must last at least three months and can go for longer, if approved by the mortgage investor. If eligible, the mortgage payment is reduced so that it does not exceed 31 percent of the borrower's gross monthly income. This program is only available for first mortgages and is a voluntary service provided by participating lenders. Homeowners should contact their lenders to see if they qualify.
  
  

Hardest Hit Housing Markets

• The Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets provides help to homeowners who live in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee or Washington, D.C. This program creates a special fund where the U.S. Department of the treasury provides a zero interest and zero payment second mortgage, which provides funds to homeowners to make their mortgage payments. As long as the homeowners pay their mortgage on time for five years, the government forgives the second mortgage without requiring a single payment.
  
  

Who Qualifies

• To qualify for either of these programs the borrower must own a one- to four-unit home, which they live in. The current mortgage must have been closed before January 1, 2009. The mortgage balance cannot exceed $729,750 for a single-unit home; the limit is higher for multi-unit homes. The mortgage loan must be late or in default and cannot have been previously modified by any of the federal modification programs.
  
  

State and Local Resources

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development certifies and trains state housing finance agencies and local housing counselors. Housing counselors must work for HUD-approved nonprofit companies. These companies provide foreclosure prevention counseling for no cost to any homeowner, unemployed or not, who faces a potential foreclosure. Homeowners should contact their housing authority or contact HUD for a list of nonprofit housing counseling agencies in their area.