Ohio’s Mortgage Payment Assistance (MPA) program for Hardest Hit Fund (HHF) applicants fully subsidized recipients' monthly mortgage payments for up to 18 months while they searched for jobs, targeting unemployed homeowners who were at risk of or in foreclosure due to financial hardship and being delinquent on their mortgage. Participants had to report their employment status to the state housing finance agency. Those who became employed before reaching the maximum duration of benefits received at least two months of assistance. In Ohio’s MPA program, re-employed participants whose new earnings were 10 percent or more below their prior earnings and had a mortgage payment debt to income ratio of 31 percent or higher, continued to receive assistance up to the maximum benefit duration. The Mortgage Assistance Payment program was commonly paired with a second HHF program that provided assistance to make delinquent mortgages current.
The study was conducted statewide in Ohio.
The comparison group was unemployed applicants for Hardest Hit Fund assistance in Ohio who were eligible for but not did not receive Mortgage Payment Assistance and did not receive other types of assistance from HHF programs. These were typically applicants who completed the first stage of the application process and were deemed eligible but then failed to complete the subsequent steps of the application process.
The study time period covered September 2010 through December 2015 using administrative data.
Participants had to report their employment status to the state housing finance agency. Those who became employed before reaching the maximum duration of benefits received at least two months of assistance. In Ohio’s MPA program, re-employed participants whose new earnings were 10 percent or more below their prior earnings and had a mortgage payment debt to income ratio of 31 percent or higher, continued to receive assistance up to the maximum benefit duration. The Mortgage Assistance Payment program was commonly paired with a second HHF program that provided assistance to make delinquent mortgages current.
No measures of program fidelity were indicated in the study.
Ohio’s Mortgage Payment Assistance program was funded as part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund (HHF) program. The HHF was funded as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s (TARP) Making Home Affordable Program.
The program was implemented statewide in Ohio.
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency implemented the program statewide.
No partners for implementing the program were identified.
The HHF Ohio Mortgage Payment Assistance program focused on unemployed individuals who applied for or received mortgage payment assistance within two quarters of their initial unemployment claim. These individuals had an average annual income of about 28 percent of the area median income.
The program provided up to 18 months of mortgage payment assistance.
The program was administered by staff at the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.