The American Rescue Plan’s Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) has played a critical role in helping families avoid foreclosure. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 2.4 million homeowners had fallen three or more months behind on their mortgage payments, with many at risk of losing their homes and in some cases years of invested savings. Homeownership is the largest driver of savings and asset building for families outside of the wealthiest 10%. Further, studies have shown that housing displacement has detrimental and long-lasting effects on children. Upon taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration took swift action to build on lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis to strengthen homeowner protection measures—including a foreclosure moratorium, increased options for mortgage forbearance and loan modifications, enhanced unemployment benefits, and nearly $10 billion through HAF to enable homeowners to prevent mortgage delinquencies, mortgage defaults and mortgage foreclosures.
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