Housing: Homeowners Assistance Program - Military Housing - Military Times

Housing: Homeowners Assistance Program

Military homeowners caught in the housing market crisis may qualify to receive help under a provision signed into law Feb. 17, 2009.

The program provides options to reduce losses on a home sale when the real estate market has declined. In essence, it expands the Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) beyond its original mission of helping military and civilian homeowners relocating because of base realignment and closure (BRAC). For homeowners affected by BRAC, the new law helps because it temporarily removes the requirement that defense officials have to show that the downturn in local housing markets was caused by a BRAC action.

The house must be the homeowner’s primary residence.

The Army Corps of Engineers administers the program for the Defense Department. Applications for assistance are submitted to one of the three Corps of Engineers districts, and the application is available at hap.usace.army.mil.

The government can reimburse the homeowner for part of the loss, assist the homeowner if there is not enough money from the proceeds of the sale to pay off the mortgage, buy the home by paying off the mortgage or help if the homeowner has defaulted on the mortgage.

For those who have suffered foreclosures or other actions, program officials can go back and pay off a homeowner’s enforceable liabilities.

Assistance related to PCS moves and BRAC actions is temporary under the law, with eligibility limited to those who bought their homes before July 1, 2006, and sold them between July 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2012, or an earlier date designated by the Defense Department. Assistance for wounded warriors and surviving spouses has no time limits.

Those eligible, in order of priority:

• Homeowners wounded, injured or ill in the line of duty while deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, and relocating for further medical treatment.

• Surviving spouses of military members or civilian employees of the Defense Department or Coast Guard who were killed in the line of duty during deployment on or after Sept. 11, 2001, or who died from a wound, injury or illness incurred in the line of duty during the deployment, if they relocate within two years of the death.

• Military and federal civilian homeowners in areas affected by base realignments and closures.

• Service members with permanent change-of-station orders dated from Feb. 1, 2006, through Sept. 30, 2010. The law authorizes payments in this category for PCS orders dated to Sept. 30, 2012, but defense officials say they will be able to extend the cutoff date only if additional funding is available. One major rule: The house must have been purchased, or the contract must have been signed, before July 1, 2006. Also, the value of an applicant’s home must have declined by at least 10 percent between purchase and sale dates — and the overall value of homes in the local county, parish or city also must have declined at least 10 percent since July 1, 2006.

Those who qualify in the wounded warrior and surviving spouse categories can receive HAP benefits equaling up to 95 percent of the original purchase price of their homes. Those qualifying in the PCS and BRAC categories can receive HAP benefits of up to 90 percent of the original purchase price.

Payments from the Homeowners Assistance Program are now exempt from federal taxes, but there may be state tax implications.

Contact: hap.usace.army.mil; e-mail: dodhap1@usace.army.mil.