There are federal programs available to help with housing, including rent assistance, counseling, mortgage help, and aid to prevent foreclosures. Some of these programs include the Department of Defense National Relocation Program and the Homeowners Assistance Program. The Housing Assistance Program (HAP) has recently been expanded to provide even more assistance to military members, veterans, and their immediate family members.
The Department of Defense National Relocation Program provides the standard Permanent Change of Station (PCS) entitlements relocation services. The Pentagon has a home buyout program for civilian employees being transferred so that they can sell their homes at their old duty station and the program will help them find and move into new housing at their new location.
The Guaranteed Home Sale is an important benefit that allows you to sell your home if you are moving for PCS purposes. This is an alternative to the PCS reimbursement process, which can be very complicated. Other services offered by the Guaranteed Home Sale include the Home Marketing Incentive Payment, which is a bonus payment given to employees who successfully market their homes, and the Home Grant, which is a grant that may be provided to employees to help with the costs of selling their homes.
The relocation program has helped many employees and their families by selling their homes. Most of this assistance has come from the Guaranteed Home Sale Program. This program has also helped many families who rent their homes. The company also offers assistance in relocating to a new town and can help with finding a place to live through their Destination Services program.
If you are a military personnel or civilian employee and are transferred to a new location, you may be eligible for benefits. These benefits are given if it is determined that the value of your home has decreased because of the closure of a military base or installation nearby. In those cases, the Housing Assistance Program covered the majority of the cost between the selling price of a house and its estimated value before a base closure announcement. The new and improved HAP program will help even more people.
Benefits of the expanded Homeowners Assistance Program
The stimulus plan will give the HAP program an extra 555 million dollars to help with things such as foreclosures and rent. If you sell your home, the program will give you extra money for closing costs and the government will pay the part of your mortgage that you still owe.
The HAP program eligibility has been expanded to include financial benefits for BRAC-affected service members and civilian employees who sell their homes at a loss. No economic impact study is required.
The Army Family Action Plan was responsible for expanding the housing program to include paying the closing costs to civilian employees and transferring service members affected by BRAC 2005.
If you have sold your home, but are still eligible for HAP benefits, there are still options available to you. Most of those individuals who have already moved can still receive HAP benefits.
This means that if you are in the military and have to move for any reason, you can sell your home through the DNRP program and get market value for it. They can then proceed to file for Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) benefits to provide any additional benefit or grants, such as loss-on-sale or negative equity payments, for which they may be entitled.
To learn more about the Homeowners Assistance Program and how it can benefit you, call 800-861-8144 for information.