NOVEMBER 2016
KeepYour HomeCalifornia | Newsletter

Updates to Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program

Keep Your Home California recently made some updates to the Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program, which should allow more senior homeowners at-risk of foreclosure due to past-due property expenses to qualify for assistance.

The pilot program will now be available to senior homeowners who have proprietary reverse mortgages. Previously, homeowners had to have an Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) in order to qualify. Also, the reverse mortgage counseling process, which is a requirement for all homeowners to complete before receiving Keep Your Home California assistance, has been streamlined to allow applicants to receive the assistance more quickly.

One aspect of the program that will remain consistent is that applicants must begin the process with their reverse mortgage servicer. A complete list of the servicers who participate in the program and their phone numbers are available on the Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program webpage. To date, more than 500 homeowners have received over $6.2 million in assistance through the program. 
#KYHCGivingThanks Continues Through the End of November
At Keep Your Home California, we are thankful our program has made positive impacts in the lives of over 68,000 California homeowners. Each day in November, we have been sharing - and will continue to share - notes we have received from homeowners about their experiences with the program. Below is a story we recently received from a homeowner who qualified for two different Keep Your Home California programs.

While it's certainly not necessary or expected, we always appreciate hearing follow-up stories from the homeowners who received Keep Your Home California assistance. Knowing the program is making a difference in the lives of real California homeowners makes our work worthwhile. If you would like to share your story, please email us at Success@kyhca.org.


Upcoming Holiday Closures
During the holiday season, there are multiple days when the Keep Your Home California call center will be closed. Below is a listing of the call center's holiday hours for the remainder of this year:
  • November 23 - Early closure at 4pm (Open 7am - 4pm)
  • November 24 - Thanksgiving Holiday (Closed)
  • November 25 - Thanksgiving Holiday (Closed)
  • December 26 - Christmas Day observed (Closed)
  • January 2 (2017) - New Year's Day observed (Closed)
You can find a complete list of the dates the call center is closed on our Before You Call webpage.
Is the Turkey Ready Yet?
Many people will soon be enjoying turkey dinners in honor of Thanksgiving. Foodsafety.gov has a wealth of information available on their website to help you prepare and cook your turkey safely. Among the tips included on the website are: There are also helpful tips for several other types of food included on the Keep Food Safe webpage.
Funding
(as of November 21, 2016)

Programs
  
Homeowners Assisted
Total Amount Distributed
Unemployment Mortgage Assistance
44,790       
$743,986,741.39
Principal Reduction Program
9,951         
$606,600,060.45
Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program
11,894       
$177,767,021.75
Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program
514
$6,264,769.75
Transition Assistance Program
1,008        
$3,581,494.94
Total Program
Funds Allocated
68,157        
$1,538,200,088.28
Recent Blog Post:

How much does principal reduction help homeowners struggling with their mortgage due to a financial hardship?

Just ask homeowners Charles and Kathleen, Gordon and Bettie, or Elaine (click the links and read their stories).

All these homeowners have benefited from Keep Your Home California's Principal Reduction Program, which offers as much as $100,000 in principal reduction - all for free. In fact, almost 9,500 homeowners have been approved for the Principal Reduction Program.

The popular program assists homeowners with unaffordable and/or underwater mortgages in California. About one of every eight homeowners with a mortgage in California has a negative equity mortgage.

Almost half of the homeowners approved for Keep Your Home California in second-quarter 2016 were enrolled in the Principal Reduction Program.

  Read More   
Success Story: Olga & Hector C.
Days from foreclosure, Keep Your Home California comes to the rescue

Homeowners Olga and Hector C. built their dream home with hard work, the occasional surprise and much love.

"I love sunshine, and one day I came home and he had started knocking down the walls," Olga says of her husband, who turned a do-it-yourself project into a much brighter and open kitchen. "It's beautiful. He did it all himself. He did it for me."

The new kitchen was one of many projects that Hector has tackled since the family bought their first home almost 20 years ago in Southern California. He built the block wall around the property, installed new windows, poured cement, built a mantle for the fireplace, and has painted the family room.

"My husband has done a lot of remodeling with his own hands," Olga says proudly.

But a bit of bad luck - Olga lost her job in late 2012 while two of their children were attending college - created a financial hardship. The challenges caused Hector and Olga to get severely behind on their mortgage payments, just like many other California homeowners during the past several years.

Read More    
Monthly Question & Answer
Q: If my loan is delinquent when I apply for the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program, will Keep Your Home California bring my loan current and keep it current?

A: No, if your loan is delinquent when you apply for Unemployment Mortgage Assistance, Keep Your Home California will not bring your loan current before making regular monthly payments. Payments are applied by the servicer in accordance with their policies and procedures. Generally, the first payment made by Keep Your Home California will be applied to the oldest payment due and then to each subsequent payment as funds are disbursed.
  
Water Saving Tips

Soak pots and pans instead of letting the water run while you scrape them clean.

For more tips on what you can do to save water, please visit the Save Our Water website.
To see all Servicer Scorecards, please visit the Participating Servicers webpage.
December 3, 2016
10:00am - 4:00pm
Save Your Home California
Riverside, CA
December 8, 2016
9:00am - 5:00pm
VSP Mobile Eyes: Clinic & Resource Fair
Dinuba, CA
December 10, 2016
8:30am - 5:30pm
Homebuyer Education Workshop
Ventura, CA
December 10, 2016
8:30am - 4:30pm
Homebuyer Education Workshop
Oxnard, CA



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www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org - 888.954.KEEP(5337)