This week, the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), MBA’s think tank, released a special report, Stabilizing Vulnerable Homeowners in a Time of Crisis: Insights from the Homeowner Assistance Fund. The report examines the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), a $10 billion federal program launched by the U.S. Department of Treasury in April 2021 to help vulnerable homeowners recover from financial hardships related to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
While pandemic‑era mortgage forbearance policies have received significant attention — and are now a permanent part of the loss‑mitigation waterfall for homeowners with federally backed mortgages — the HAF program has been less well understood. According to Professor Stephanie Moulton, the report’s lead author, the RIHA study “is the first to examine the $10 billion HAF program and the homeowners who benefited. The insights from this report help us better understand potential gaps in the loss‑mitigation waterfall and the types of homeowners who may benefit from targeted support when they experience a crisis.”
This week’s MBA Chart of the Week replicates Figure 3.0.1 from the report and shows that HAF expenditures increased consistently quarter over quarter from Q1 2022 through Q3 2023.
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