As the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of Americans and created turmoil for homeowners, the American Rescue Plan Act’s Homeowner Assistance Fund has granted California $1 billion in mortgage relief funds to help homeowners who have faced financial hardships during these times.

The funds, delivered through the California Mortgage Relief Program, are provided as a one-time grant to qualified homeowners who have fallen behind on their housing payments or have reverse mortgage arrearages due to pandemic-related financial hardship. Over $10 million dollars has gone to pay for missed mortgage payments for California homeowners.

California’s Mortgage Relief Program recently released a multi-cultural Community Outreach Toolkit to provide local governments with easy-to-use resources to inform homeowners in their communities about this assistance. The multi-cultural tool kit includes important information on how to apply, eligibility requirements, and where to find assistance, as well as ready-to-use outreach resources such as flyers, social media posts and talking points. It is available in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, and Chinese.

The Community Outreach Toolkit makes it easy to help homeowners to learn about the program, and CSAC encourages counties to distribute information about this resource to support the recovery of communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since launching on December 27, 2021, a robust outreach and engagement effort has been underway to encourage qualified California homeowners to apply for this federally funded program that covers past due mortgage payments in full, up to $80,000.

This one-time grant, which does not have to be repaid, gives homeowners a fresh start. The program also covers reverse mortgage holders who are behind on their property taxes or forced hold insurance payments.

Additional information and links to other sources of financial help can be found at the program’s website at CaMortgageRelief.org. Counties who have questions about this program or would like more information can reach out to the California Mortgage Relief Program at legislative@camortgagerelief.org.