HUD Responds to California Wildfires

In response to the ongoing California wildfires, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) stated it would speed up its federal disaster assistance to the state and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes in the areas impacted by this disaster.

 

President Trump issued a major disaster declaration for Butte, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties, which enables HUD to offer foreclosure relief and other assistance to qualified households living in these counties. HUD’s automatic 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured home mortgages is now in effect in the counties covered by the presidential declaration, along with the Department’s Section 203(h) program to provide FHA insurance to disaster victims whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged by the flames.

 

HUD’s Section 203(k) loan program is also now available in the counties within the presidential declaration, thus allowing homeowners who lost their properties to finance the purchase or refinance of a house along with its repair through a single mortgage. It also allows homeowners who have damaged houses to finance the rehabilitation of their existing single-family home. HUD added that it is working with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California state government regarding housing providers that may have available units in the impacted counties.

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