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CalHFA outlines CalAssist program to provide short-term mortgage help for disaster victims; portal to open in June
Summary
CalHFA staff described 'CalAssist,' a mortgage assistance program funded with National Mortgage Settlement funds to provide up to three months of mortgage payments (max $20,000) for homeowners whose primary residences were destroyed or declared uninhabitable in qualified disasters between Jan. 2023 and Jan. 8, 2025; applications will open in mid-June with a June 5 press event.
CalHFA Chief Deputy Rebecca Franklin and Kelly Madsen, Director of Enterprise Risk Management and Special Initiatives, outlined CalHFA’s new disaster mortgage assistance program (referred to in materials as 'CalAssist'), which uses remaining National Mortgage Settlement funds to help homeowners displaced by declared disasters.
The program will provide up to three months of mortgage payments (whichever is less, up to a $20,000 cap) for owners whose primary residence was destroyed or deemed uninhabitable as the result of a state proclamation of emergency or a federal major disaster declaration between Jan. 2023 and Jan. 8, 2025. Eligibility is limited to primary-residence owners at or below 100% of AMI and whose principal first mortgage at time of financing is at or below the current 2025 HUD conforming loan limit for the county where the property sits; applicants must not own an additional property.
Franklin said the program design reflects lessons learned from California’s earlier mortgage-relief work: staff will limit documentation burdens where possible, coordinate outreach through HUD-certified housing counselors and community-based organizations, and code denials to rapidly re-contact applicants if eligibility criteria change. Madsen said partner education and intensive outreach will begin the week following the board meeting, a press event is scheduled in Altadena on June 5 and the application portal is planned to open on June 12; staff anticipates grant payments beginning in July and continuing until allocated funds are exhausted.
Board members praised the rapid timeline and asked for county-sorted lists of participating community partners and additional data once reservations migrate to securitized loans for My Access. Staff committed to providing enumerated partner lists and to coordinating outreach with state recovery entities (Cal OES and related task forces).
