The Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) was created by the American Rescue Plan Act to help homeowners struggling to make housing payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to mortgage payments, the HAF offers community association homeowners assistance with paying "homeowner's association, condominium association fees, or common charges," which qualify as housing expenses that may be paid from the fund.
This marks the first time the federal government has elevated payment of community association assessment delinquencies to the same level as mortgage delinquencies in emergency housing legislation.
To qualify, homeowners must have incomes that are less than 150% of the area median income and have suffered a financial hardship, such as a job loss or hefty healthcare expenses, after January 21, 2020.
Only states electing to participate in the HAF will receive an allocation to create state HAF programs, which will be administered though the state housing finance agencies. Click here to view the data and methodology used by the Treasury Department to determine HAF state allocations. Please note that the deadline for states to either submit HAF Plans or notify Treasury of the date by which their HAF plan will be submitted was extended to July 31, 2021; most state HAF programs. Most programs that have been approved are active with a few in their pilot phase.