By Alejandro Lazo | CalMatters
Angela Morrow was only eight months into a new career as a flight attendant when she was laid off from her job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting her at risk of losing her three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in San Bernardino County.
Morrow, 63, said she was able to save her home in Bloomington through the $1 billion California Mortgage Relief Program, which enabled her to pay off more than $54,000 worth of mortgage debt — relief that lowered her monthly payments for the long term.
“Receiving that grant has been a monumental blessing for me,” Morrow said. “It created a solid foundation for my kids, and their future, after I’m gone.”
Today, state officials will announce they are expanding who is eligible for the program, including some who took second mortgages.
With $300 million already given out to 10,000 homeowners, as much as $700 million worth of aid remains available for borrowers who qualify for the program, which was created in December 2021 using federal dollars from the American Rescue Act.
The expansion comes as state officials say the pandemic-era housing market — characterized by an uncertain economy, high home prices and now higher mortgage interest rates — could still imperil homeownership in the Golden State, particularly for lower- and middle-income families.
Fewer than 56% of Californians live in homes they or their families own, the second lowest rate of any state and just slightly higher than New York.
“People shouldn’t be penalized, and lose something that they’ve worked so hard to obtain, and lose that opportunity for generational wealth, due to circumstances outside of their control,” said Rebecca Franklin, president of the California Housing Finance Agency’s Homeowner Relief Corp., which is administering the mortgage relief program. “That’s what this program is about: To catch people up, to erase that long-term financial impact that the pandemic maybe had on…
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