Keep Your Home California Receives Additional $383.3 Million in Funding to Help More Homeowners

As much as $100,000 available per homeowner

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Keep Your Home California will receive an additional $383.3 million in
funding from the federal government, allowing the mortgage-assistance
program to help prevent foreclosure for more homeowners struggling with
financial hardships.

The U.S.
Department of the Treasury announced
the additional funding Wednesday, the second phase of additional
funding approved for the Hardest
Hit Fund program during the past two months.

The combined $383.3 million will allow the state-managed program to help
at least 12,000 more homeowners. Qualifying homeowners can receive up to
$100,000 in mortgage payment assistance from Keep Your Home California.

“US Treasury’s announcement of additional funding for Keep Your Home
California further validates the ongoing challenges many Californians
are experiencing with homeownership,” said state Treasurer John Chiang.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to help many more California
homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages due to unaffordable
payments, unemployment, negative equity and other financial hardships.”

When Keep Your Home California launched in 2011, nearly $2 billion was
available to California homeowners to help prevent foreclosures. The
additional funding brings the grand total to $2.36 billion in mortgage
payment assistance available to low to moderate income California
homeowners. So far, Keep Your Home California has assisted more than
62,200 homeowners and issued about $1.34 billion since the program began.

“Today’s announcement continues Treasury’s commitment to provide relief
to struggling homeowners and help stabilize neighborhoods in hard hit
areas,” said Mark McArdle, Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Financial Stability. “While the housing market continues to recover we
know some homeowners and areas are still experiencing the damaging
effects of the housing crisis. With this additional funding, states will
be equipped to continue their great work in getting critical resources
to those most in need.”

The additional $383.3 million in federal funding comes after Keep Your
Home California recently reported its two best quarters since the
program started in February 2011. The program issued more than $95
million in funding during the third and fourth quarters of 2015 – or a
combined $190 million for the six-month period.

According to numerous reports, there are still a host of challenges
facing the California housing market. For example, more than 1 million
Californians were jobless in March, including many out-of-work
homeowners, according to the state Employment
Development Department. At the end of 2015, about 50,000 homeowners
in the state were at least 90 days behind on their mortgage payments,
which often leads to foreclosure. And, California had the most
negative-equity of any state at $65 billion – or 13 percent of the
negative-equity mortgages nationwide – at the end of the third quarter
in 2015, according to data from Zillow.

“The demand for assistance from homeowners and the figures from housing
industry reports clearly demonstrate the continued need for Keep Your
Home California,” said Tia Boatman Patterson, Executive Director of the
California Housing Finance Agency, the state agency which oversees Keep
Your Home California. “Our primary goal is to help struggling homeowners
with their mortgage problems, but everyone, from neighborhoods to state
government, benefits from Keep Your Home California.”

With the additional funding, Keep Your Home California will now continue
to December 31, 2020, or until the money is used, whichever comes first.
The previous deadline for the program was December 31, 2017.

Homeowners seeking more information about Keep Your Home California
should call 888-954-KEEP (5337) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays and 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays or visit www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org.
Representatives can take applications in virtually any language through
a translation service and there is never a fee for any Keep Your Home
California services. A Spanish-language version of the website is also
available at www.ConservaTuCasaCalifornia.org.

Contacts

California Housing Finance Agency
Diane Richardson, 916-326-8082
DRichardson@CalHFA.ca.gov