The NC Homeowner Assistance Fund was established through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to prevent mortgage delinquencies, defaults, displacements and foreclosures for homeowners experiencing financial difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic. Assistance of up to $40,000 per household is available for qualified homeowners as long as funding is available. This program is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number HAF0019 awarded to the State of North Carolina by the US Department of the Treasury. The NC Housing Finance Agency is operating the program through funding provided by the NC Pandemic Recovery Office.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency is a self-supporting public agency that finances affordable housing opportunities for North Carolinians whose needs are not met by the market. Since its creation in 1973 by the General Assembly, the Agency has financed 318,830 affordable homes and apartments, totaling $30.1 billion. The Agency provides financing through the sale of tax-exempt bonds and management of federal tax credit programs, the federal HOME Program, the state Housing Trust Fund, the NC Homeowner Assistance Fund and other programs.
North Carolina was allocated $273 million from the Homeowner Assistance Fund, which was established through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to address mortgage delinquencies and prevent, displacements and foreclosures for homeowners experiencing financial difficulties due to the pandemic. This program is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number HAF0019 awarded to the State of North Carolina by the US Department of the Treasury. The NC Housing Finance Agency is operating the program through funding provided by the NC Pandemic Recovery Office..
For qualified homeowners, the Fund offers assistance for mortgage and homeowner-related payments that are at least at least 30 days past due (as applicable), per our policy, including:
Please note: Assistance may only be provided with respect to qualified expenses related to the dwelling that is an eligible homeowner’s primary residence.
Assistance is available up to $40,000 per household and will be made directly to the mortgage servicer or other eligible third party.
If you are experiencing financial hardship due to job loss/business closure, reduction in hours or pay, difficulty obtaining new employment, death of a spouse or co-borrower or increased expenses due to the pandemic, you could be eligible for assistance. Increased expenses can be due to health care, the need to care for a family member, increased child care costs due to school closures or increased costs associated with quarantine.
You may be eligible for assistance from the NC Homeowner Assistance Fund if:
You may be eligible for just housing-related expenses if you are current on your mortgage (or don’t have a mortgage) and are at least 30 days past due on other housing-related payments, such as homeowner’s insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance, homeowner’s association dues/fees or delinquent property taxes to prevent foreclosure. Click here to view the full list of eligible expenses.
Assistance is available for single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, duplexes, mobile and manufactured housing. The property must be your principal residence and located in North Carolina. If you own more than one property, you can only apply for your principal residence.
Yes, you may be eligible if you are at least 30 days (including any payments during a forbearance period) past due on other housing-related payments, such as homeowner’s insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance, homeowner’s association dues/fees or delinquent property taxes to prevent foreclosure. Click here to view the full list of eligible expenses.
Once you complete your application, it goes through multiple steps for review and verification including working with your servicer(s) to sign a collaboration agreement and verify debt. These steps can be rather lengthy, depending on the time it takes to receive and review information and documentation for eligibility determinations and the servicer(s) to provide information and accept program documentation. Check out the “How does it work” section of our website to learn more about each step of your application’s journey.
NCHAF funds may be used to provide assistance on a reverse mortgage, provided you already entered into a repayment plan with your mortgage servicer, and you meet all other eligibility criteria.
In most instances, the assistance will not need to be repaid, unless there is a false claim or fraudulent misstatements on the application.
There is no cost to participate in the NC Homeowner Assistance Fund (NCHAF). You will never be asked to pay a fee to apply or receive assistance. If you believe you were inappropriately approached by non-NCHAF representatives offering NCHAF-related financial assistance and were asked for a payment or requested your personal information for the NCHAF program, please report the fraud attempt here.
You can find out if you are eligible and submit your application through our Application Portal or by contacting our call center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423) and asking a program specialist to help you apply. An email address is required to apply online – if you do not have an email, our team can help you complete your application by phone or in-person at our Morrisville location. To schedule an appointment, please contact the NCHAF Call Center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423).
Homeowners will be asked to provide a statement attesting to experiencing a financial hardship associated with the coronavirus pandemic, a written attestation and additional documentation of household income and documentation verifying the property is the homeowner’s primary residence. Additional documentation may be requested depending on the homeowner’s individual circumstances. Please see the checklist below for a basic list of documents and information needed to apply for the program:
Please call our call center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423) and ask a program specialist to help you with your application over the phone. If you do not have access to reliable internet or an email address, you can also review this infographic that explains how to get help filling out an application in person or by phone.
Please call our call center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423) and request interpretive assistance.
Your application will go through several steps in the application journey, some of which can be rather lengthy depending on the applicant and servicer(s). Check out the “How does it work” section of our website to learn more about each step of your application’s status.
You can also check your status in the application portal or contact our call center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423) to speak with a program specialist and learn where you are in the process.
Payment will be made directly to your mortgage servicer or other third-party provider depending on the approved assistance type.
Yes, your servicer (the company you make your mortgage payment to) should be able to offer some assistance to make your mortgage or overdue payments easier to meet. The NC Homeowner Assistance Fund may be able to help either before or after you get help from your servicer. However, if you are in the process of getting a loan modification with your servicer, you may be ineligible.
Possibly. If your mortgage is in forbearance, it is likely that your mortgage servicer has options for you once your forbearance period is over. We encourage you to discuss these options with your mortgage servicer or enlist help from a HUD-certified housing counselor who can assist you in understanding these options.
The NC Homeowner Assistance Fund currently has a large number of applicants in its pipeline and is receiving new applications each day. Given that need, we are limiting assistance to new applicants to ensure we can serve as many North Carolinians as possible and do not expect to have funds available for returning applicants.
If you were previously denied assistance from the NC Homeowner Assistance Fund and would like to submit an appeal, please contact our call center at 1-855-MY-NCHAF (1-855-696-2423) to speak with a program specialist.
When the Homeowner Assistance Fund was established through the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 pandemic had created extensive economic hardships for homeowners across North Carolina. At the peak, more than 350,000 homeowners were behind on payments. Even as the state began showing signs of recovery, 245,866 homeowners were still behind on their payments or already in foreclosure, placing them at heightened risk for losing their homes in the coming months.
For a family and their children, the importance of being able to stay in their home can’t be calculated. During the Great Recession, which caused hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, a Brookings Institute study found that children faced not just the loss of their homes, but also the risk of losing friends and falling behind academically when forced to switch neighborhoods and schools as a result of foreclosure.
A foreclosure hurts not only the family that is displaced from their home, but it lowers property values of all the surrounding homeowners. Foreclosure destabilizes neighborhoods, with vacant homes sometimes leading to increased crime, and it destabilizes the local tax base in ways that ripple through the state’s economy. Foreclosure can also impact overall health in a community, with every additional foreclosure in a ZIP code leading to more non-elective hospital or emergency room visits over the next year.
We all benefit when a foreclosure is prevented. Treasury’s goal—and ours—is to stabilize communities as well as families.
Your award amount is determined by the information received back from your servicer(s) during the debt verification step of the process.
Unfortunately, NCHAF cannot reassess or change your award amount once it is received from your servicer(s) unless the servicer(s) submits a change or update.
If you would like to update any information in your pre-screening responses, please don’t hesitate to contact our call center at 855-MY NCHAF (855-696-2423). Our call center will be able to assist you in making those changes to your pre-screen.
Additional help may be available through the State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project (SHFPP) administered by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. This program provides free housing counseling services. Housing counselors are specially trained and can work with your mortgage company on your behalf or refer you to free legal services if you qualify. You can reach the SHFPP call center at 1-888-442-8188 to be connected to a housing counselor. For more information, check out the Resources page.
