2 weeks left on program to help unemployed avoid foreclosure

With about two weeks to its Sept. 16 application deadline, Pennsylvania's Emergency Homeowners Loan Program is being besieged by unemployed residents - most of them from the Philadelphia region - hoping to avert foreclosure.

"On recent days, our number of applications received has gone as high as nearly 250," said Scott Elliott, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which is administering the $105.8 million, federally funded program.

As of Aug. 26, Elliott said, 3,643 applications had been received statewide since the program began in April. A total of 1,387 applications had been approved, 1,269 rejected, and 987 were still being processed.

The chief reason for rejection, Elliott said, is that the applicant's current income is not 15 percent less than what it was before unemployment - a program requirement.

The top five counties for applications: Philadelphia, County, 1,177; Delaware, 252; Allegheny, 238; Montgomery, 198; and Bucks, 128.

The agency had spent $45 million of the amount provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Elliott said the agency had extended the deadline for receiving applications to Sept. 16 "because we need the final two weeks of September to process applications, which sometimes requires time for requesting additional documentation from homeowners."

The program expires Sept. 30.

When the federal government announced April 1 that Pennsylvania would be the first of 27 states to receive the $1 billion set aside for the program, the state hoped it would benefit 4,000 to 5,000 unemployed homeowners who were ineligible for other programs designed to reduce the number of foreclosures.

The disbursement of the money had been delayed for six months - some blaming it on political wrangling in Congress over the value of such programs.

Underemployed and those without jobs for medical reasons also may be eligible for the loans. All must be at least 90 days' delinquent on their mortgages.

Program details are available at http://tinyurl.com/44suya6.

Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development on Wednesday said it would be open Wednesday evening from 5 to 7:30 and again next Wednesday and Sept. 14 to receive applications for the loans.

The program's center is in City Hall, Room 287, and open Thursdays through Sept. 15 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

In addition, some city-funded housing counseling agencies have started to hold evening hours for receiving applications.

Appointments are available by calling the SaveYourHomePhilly Hotline at 215-334-4663.

Pennsylvania had been the first awarded the funding because, for 28 years, it had in place its Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, known as HEMAP, while other states had to start from scratch.

Budget-cutting, however, has ended the program, which had saved 45,000 homes from foreclosure and was recently praised as a model by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.