Struggling Florida home owners to get additional "Hardest Hit" help.

The Florida Housing Finance Corporation announced changes to the Hardest Hit Fund program last week that may help struggling home owners in the Florida real estate market get back on their feet in a more expedient manner. Residents of regions such as Tampa Bay and South Florida, who have felt the sting of the housing recession more so than any other area of the country, will welcome the relief.

Launched in 2010, the U.S. Treasury created the “Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets” and allocated funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to Florida, California, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. Initially allocated to these states because of their excessive housing market depreciation and to assist in foreclosure prevention efforts, the Hardest Hit Fund expanded to 18 states and the District of Columbia, all severely affected by under-employment and the steep decline in real estate prices. Administered by each state’s Housing Finance Committee, benefits of the fund may include mortgage payment assistance, principal reduction, and help paying down second lien holders.

Changes to the Hardest Hit Fund are intended to decrease eligibility roadblocks, which seemingly prevented many Florida home owners from qualifying for assistance. Changes include allowing home owners longer periods of mortgage assistance, elimination of the monthly expense/income qualification ratio, and increasing the allowance cap to bring the loan up to date, to name a few. The previous requirement that a home owner’s monthly expenses equal less than 31% of their gross income in order to qualify for assistance has also been eliminated.

The changes will likely allow more home owners to benefit from the program. As of December, 2011, only 3% of the available money had been used up by just over 30,000 home owners nationwide, according to the Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). 

To apply for assistance, Florida home owners should visit flhardesthithelp.org.