The Homeowner Assistance Fund Is Closing. What Florida Homeowners Can Still Get.

If you have searched for government help with your mortgage in the last few weeks, you have probably landed on a page about the Homeowner Assistance Fund. It is the answer the internet still gives, and for Florida homeowners it has been the wrong answer for nearly four years.

Here is the accurate picture, with dates.

The federal program ends September 30, 2026

The Homeowner Assistance Fund was created in 2021 to help homeowners who suffered a financial hardship after January 21, 2020. Treasury sent roughly $10 billion to states, territories, and tribes, and each one ran its own program.

Every one of those awards has the same expiry. Treasury’s award terms set the period of performance to September 30, 2026. After that date, a state cannot obligate HAF money for mortgage payments, utilities, insurance, or any other qualified expense, and whatever is left unobligated is returned to Treasury. There is a 120-day window afterward, but it is only for paying out obligations that already existed on September 30 and for closing the books. Treasury’s own closeout guidance is explicit that assistance covering any period after September 30, 2026 cannot be paid.

So if you live in a state whose program is still open, the window is measured in weeks, not months.

Florida’s program closed in 2022

Florida did not run its program to the deadline. It ran out of money first.

• July 30, 2022 — the state closed registration to new homeowners.
• August 26, 2022 — the state stopped accepting applications entirely.
• By November 2022 Florida had awarded more than $518 million to about 26,500 households, one of the largest and fastest distributions in the country.

Florida’s program offered up to $50,000 per household for mortgage reinstatement, property taxes, insurance, and association fees. It worked. It is also finished. There is no waitlist, no second round, and no reopening before the September 2026 federal deadline.

This matters because the search results have not caught up. Pages describing how to apply, what documents to gather, and which income tier you fall into are still ranking, and they are describing a program that stopped taking applications during the Biden administration’s first term. If you have been holding on because you thought state help was coming, stop waiting on it and read the next section.

What is actually still available

Three doors are open. None of them is a check in the mail, and all three are free to walk through.

1. Your own servicer, in writing

This is the one people skip because they assume the answer is no. Federal rules require your servicer to evaluate a complete loss-mitigation application, and the menu is wider than most homeowners realize:

• Repayment plan — you spread the missed amount over the coming months on top of your normal payment.
• Forbearance — payments paused or reduced for a defined period while a hardship resolves.
• Partial claim (FHA) — HUD advances the arrears as a zero-interest subordinate lien that you do not repay until you sell or refinance.
• Modification — the loan itself is changed. Fannie Mae’s Flex Modification and FHA’s 30- and 40-year modifications both exist specifically to lower a payment that has become unaffordable.

Two rules of thumb. Apply in writing, and keep the confirmation. And do it before the file is deep in default, because several of these options narrow as the delinquency ages.

2. A HUD-approved housing counselor, free

HUD funds nonprofit agencies to sit with homeowners, read the actual mortgage statement, and deal with the servicer. It costs nothing, it is not a sales channel, and a counselor’s letter often moves a servicer faster than a homeowner’s phone call.

Find one through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s counselor directory, or call the HOPE hotline at 888-995-HOPE (888-995-4673), which is staffed around the clock.

3. County SHIP funds, in Florida

Florida’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership sends money to every county each year, and counties write their own local plans. Some fund foreclosure prevention, mortgage delinquency assistance, or emergency repairs; others spend the whole allocation on purchase assistance. It varies by county and by year, which is exactly why it is worth one phone call to your county housing or community development office rather than an assumption.

The thing nobody selling you something will say

Sometimes the numbers do not work. If the payment has risen past what the household earns, and the shortfall is permanent rather than temporary, a modification only stretches the problem out. That is a legitimate finding, not a failure, and it is better to reach it in month two than in month ten with an attorney’s fee attached.

When keeping the house is not the right answer, selling before the foreclosure completes almost always leaves you in better shape than letting it run. If you owe more than the house is worth, that sale is a short sale, and the lender’s approval is part of the transaction. Our free guide covers how that process actually works, what the lender requires, and what happens afterward to your credit and your taxes.

Watch for the scam wave

Every time a relief program closes, the fee-charging “foreclosure rescue” operators get busier, because demand does not disappear when the funding does. In Florida it is against the law for a foreclosure-rescue consultant to take payment before the promised service is delivered. Nobody legitimate needs your money up front, and nobody legitimate needs you to sign the deed over “temporarily.”

If a solicitation arrives that seems tailored to your situation, that is not luck. Default filings are public record.

Where to start today

1. Call 888-995-HOPE or find a HUD-approved counselor. Free, and today.
2. Ask your servicer, in writing, for a loss-mitigation application and keep a copy.
3. Call your county housing office and ask whether their current SHIP plan funds foreclosure prevention.
4. Get an honest read on what the house would sell for, so you know whether keeping it is a real option or a slow one.

If the reason your payment stopped fitting is the escrow line rather than the loan, start with why your payment went up when your rate did not or, if it is the premium specifically, what to do when the insurance increase is the unaffordable part.

Short Sale Guide is a licensed Florida real estate brokerage. We do not charge homeowners for information, and the guide is free.