Recently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge made a key announcement. Thanks to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) programs, approximately 2 million homeowners with FHA mortgages were able to stay in their homes from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 through December 2022, when doing so was often a matter of life and death, HUD stated in a release.

During this period of time amid the pandemic, FHA borrowers whose ability to make their mortgage payments was impaired by the pandemic were able to obtain either a COVID-19 forbearance or a more permanent solution such as a loan modification that allowed them to avoid foreclosure.

Based on the effectiveness of these options, FHA announced last week its COVID-19 toolkit has been extended to help all eligible borrowers who are struggling to avoid foreclosure, regardless of the reason for their hardship. These tools will be available for at least the next 18 months.

“Although the pandemic has ended, the economic effects will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future,” Fudge said in the release. “These impactful and effective foreclosure prevention tools will help struggling borrowers find the right option to help them get back on their feet and keep them in their homes. These tools have been so successful already, which is why FHA worked to enhance them further and include more borrowers.”

Included in these new enhancements, HUD said, are updates that also increase the limit on the amount of interest-free arrearages borrowers can pay at the end of their mortgage term to help maximize the number of borrowers able to retain their homes despite higher interest rates. The mandatory effective date of the changes is April 30, but mortgage servicers may begin offering these options to borrowers immediately.

“In the last two years, FHA has helped 1,845,000 mortgage holders enter into an agreement with their mortgage servicer to have their mortgage payments paused or reduced (forbearance) due to COVID-19,” HUD said. “Additionally, 1.2 million (most of whom obtained this help after a forbearance) were able to resume payments and put any arrearages at the end of their mortgage or obtain a loan modification that reduced their payment to avoid foreclosure.

“Currently, there are another 58,000 borrowers working with their servicer to finalize an option to avoid foreclosure,” HUD added. “For borrowers of color specifically, FHA helped 800,000 individuals and families of color through forbearance, and almost 550,000 through a loss mitigation option.

A quick look at the facts sheet supporting the Biden-Harris administration keeping nearly 2 million homeowners in their own homes amidst the pandemic shows over 1.8 million FHA borrowers received a forbearance due to a hardship created or exacerbated by COVID-19. Over 1 million of those borrowers received a plan to enable the borrower to remain in the home by lowering a monthly payment or participating in another home retention option, while another 691,000 have cured or paid off their mortgage without need of a loss mitigation plan, according to the release.

There was also a breakdown of support by state and racial and ethnic identity.

Those receiving assistance through forbearance were 1,069,000 White, 348,000 Hispanic, 365,000 Black, 42,000 Asian, 10,000 Hawaiian and 11,000 Native American. Those receiving home retention support were 697,000 White, 247,000 Hispanic, 259,000 Black, 28,000 Asian, 7,000 Hawaiian and 8,000 Native American.

Texas was the No. 1 state as far as receiving assistance through forbearance (228,000 homes), in addition to 156,400 homes receiving home retention support.