COVID-19 Resources for Homeowners

Are you a homeowner struggling to pay your mortgage? Learn about requesting COVID-19 mortgage relief (forbearance). Hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt across the economy. Currently there are over 300,000 FHA borrowers nationwide who are at least 90-days delinquent on their mortgage and in danger of losing their home to foreclosure. Over 20,000 of these at-risk consumers are Floridians.

On June 14, 2021, HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling mailed a personalized letter to the more than 307,000 homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages who were behind on their mortgage payments by 60 or more days as of April 30, 2021. These homeowners have not received a mortgage payment forbearance from their mortgage servicer. This direct outreach letter urges homeowners to act immediately by contacting their mortgage servicer directly, or by engaging with a HUD-approved housing counseling agency.

While there are at-risk homeowners throughout our entire state, the greatest numbers of Florida’s 20,000+ delinquent FHA homeowners are concentrated in the Tampa / Orlando and Miami metro areas – mostly in six (6) counties: Polk, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.

Here are the steps borrowers should take now:

1. Contact their mortgage servicer and request a COVID-9 forbearance. A forbearance is a reduction or pause in the mortgage payment; servicers must grant an initial COVID-19 mortgage payment forbearance for at least six months.
2. When working with their servicer, borrowers should:
   a) State that they are having a financial hardship due to COVID-19. They’ll not be required to provide documentation of this hardship;
   b) Request a COVID-19 Forbearance for their mortgage payments;
   c) Ask their servicer to confirm the details of their agreement in writing.
   For help talking to their mortgage servicer or understanding options, affected borrowers may contact a HUD-approved housing counseling agency in their area. They’ll not have to repay paused payments all at once. Borrowers can talk to a local housing counselor for free guidance on how to make sure payments are affordable.
   Attached you will find some resources to share with struggling FHA homeowners in your area; and with this effective information, possibly prevent them from losing their homes in foreclosure.

Click on COVID FHA Borrower Letter to view or download.