In early 2021, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. This law created a Homeowner Assistance Fund, a federal program, to give around $10 billion to the states to help households that are behind on their mortgages and other housing expenses due to COVID-19.
Eligible homeowners in Washington who've experienced a financial hardship because of COVID-19 can get a portion of the approximately $173 million allocated to the state—up to $60,000 per household—by applying to the state's Homeowner Assistance Fund program. This program uses federal money to help homeowners pay mortgage payments and other housing costs.
You can use money from the Washington Homeowner Assistance Fund (Washington HAF) program to:
If you qualify for at least one of the types of financial assistance described above, you can also get financial assistance to pay:
Also, some of Washington's Homeowner Assistance funds will pay for default housing counseling services and related services. So, regardless of income level, all homeowners in Washington can get free assistance working with their loan servicers.
In addition, some funds will go to Civil Legal Aid to provide no-cost legal assistance to income-qualified homeowners.
To qualify for relief from this program, you must have suffered a financial hardship (a material reduction in income or an increase in living expenses) after January 21, 2020, because of COVID-19.
You also have to meet these guidelines.
Assistance is in the form of a grant that you don't have to repay. Payments from the program go directly to the loan servicer or other approved entity, not to homeowners.
This program will be available until funds run out or through June 30, 2024.
Go to https://washingtonhaf.org to request a call back to find out if you're eligible. As part of the process, you might have to provide certain documents with your application, like mortgage statements, proof of income (such as pay stubs or tax returns), and a government-issued ID (like a driver's license). You may start gathering these documents while you're waiting for the return call.
Or you can call 877‐894‐4663.
Be wary if you get an unsolicited offer by phone, mail, email, or text message offering mortgage relief or foreclosure rescue services. Scammers sometimes target homeowners who've been affected by COVID-19.
Homeowner Assistance Fund programs are free. If anyone asks you to pay a fee to get housing counseling or to receive foreclosure prevention services from this program, it's a scam.
You can report scams on the Washington HAF website.
Call Washington's homeownership hotline at 877‐894‐4663 to learn more about the program and start working with a housing counselor on your specific situation.
Also, you can get more information about the program by reading Washington's Homeowner Assistance Fund plan.