Press Contact Only:
Margaret Matrone, NCHFA, 919-877-5606, mamatrone@nchfa.com
Connie Helmlinger, NCHFA, 919-877-5607 cshelmlinger@nchfa.com
Unemployed workers and others facing temporary financial hardships in Chatham, Harnett, Lee and Moore counties have a new avenue to seek mortgage help while they get back on their feet. Brick Capital CDC of Sanford has joined 40 counseling organizations statewide in offering the NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund, a mortgage assistance program offered through the NC Housing Finance Agency that has already helped 13,700 North Carolinians.
The Fund makes mortgage payments for unemployed workers while they seek jobs or complete job training in a new field. Other homeowners, who have gotten behind on their mortgage payments because of divorce, illness or other temporary hardship, may qualify for help while they look for work. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund® to support the economic recovery.
Mortgage payment assistance is provided as a zero-interest, deferred loan of up to $36,000 or 36 months of mortgage-related payments. After the assistance period, homeowners resume making their own mortgage payments. If the owner continues to live in the home for at least 10 years, the loan is considered satisfied and no repayment is required.
To be eligible, homeowners must have an acceptable mortgage payment history prior to the job loss or hardship, have potential to resume their mortgage payments once the assistance ends, and meet other program guidelines. The job loss or hardship should have occurred on or after January 1, 2008.
“The goal is to help responsible North Carolina homeowners keep their homes and to support the state’s economic recovery by protecting property values and the local tax base,” said A. Robert Kucab, executive director of the NC Housing Finance Agency, the self-supporting state agency that designed and manages the effort.
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The NC Housing Finance Agency is a self-supporting public agency. It has financed nearly 215,000 affordable homes and apartments statewide since its creation in 1973.
