Black Homeowners Lament Closure of Homeowner Assistance Fund Portal

On June 27, the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced that applications for the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) would no longer be accepted after June 30 due to allocation of all the federal dollars made available to District residents who fell behind on their mortgage and utility payments.  

For some HAF applicants, like Stephanie Rones, that announcement hinted at DHCD’s mismanagement of the $50 million in COVID relief funds, to her detriment and that of other District homeowners who vied for utility and mortgage relief.  

“I applied the first day they opened up the portal, so why am I on a waitlist two years later?” said Rones, a Northeast resident. 

On July 2, Rones emailed the D.C. Executive Office of the Mayor, D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large), and D.C. Office of the Inspector General to request an investigation of HAF. In this email, which followed numerous other emails sent to the mayor’s office and council members over the course of a year, she also demanded the exploration of strategies to streamline the application process and disburse funds more efficiently. 

During the summer of 2022, Rones submitted her HAF application and supplementary documentation to Lydia’s House, a nonprofit housing counseling organization. From there, the materials went to the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). 

Rones said LEDC approved her application a year later, but not before she called and emailed the organization for weekly updates. 

As Rones recounted, DHCD took several months to process the approved application and secure payments for the water and electric bills, her lowest utility costs that stood at less than $200. She said DHCD has yet to cover her internet bill, which she managed to pay down to $1,000 on her own.

In January 2023, amid Rones’ attempts to contact DHCD about the delays in payment, Comcast/Xfinity closed her account and prepared it for transfer to a collection agency. She would later learn that HAF doesn’t cover closed accounts. 

“My perception of the program was that it wasn’t well thought out, and it was mismanaged,” Rones said. “For some reason, now that they’re at the end of the program and the funds are dwindling, they don’t want to pay utilities and past due mortgages. They haven’t paid past due utilities and mortgages, so now they want to change the rules.” 

Questions about Timeline, Processes, and Additional Funding Sources

A staff member in At-large Councilmember White’s office told The Informer that they’ve heard from District residents who’ve either been denied HAF or haven’t received responses from DHCD. Legal service organizations, the staffer said, also shared “miscommunication issues” that kept residents in the dark about the status of their application. 

The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from LEDC. In speaking about delays, a DHCD spokesperson cited incomplete applications and unregistered vendors who were unable to accept payment through the HAF program as key causes. 

From HAF’s 2022 launch up until June 30, 3,170 applications have been submitted. Of that amount, 2,948 have been processed, 1,650 of which have been approved. Per DHCD, nearly 1,000 HAF applications have been denied. The spokesperson noted that DHCD made on-site housing counselors available for homeowners unable to navigate the online portal while also allowing family members and other representatives to apply on their behalf. 

All HAF funds have been allocated, the spokesperson said. The 222 applications that haven’t been processed are being waitlisted. Those homeowners will be awarded funds on a first-come, first basis with first-time applicants being the priority. 

A July 5 DHCD letter that The Informer secured said that “repeat applications” — approved and denied initial applications for which DHCD requested additional documentation — would be evaluated on Oct. 1, should HAF funds be available at the time. By that time, HAF will no longer provide payment assistance for utilities, internet, homeowner’s insurance, and forward-facing housing payments, according to the letter. 

For Joanne Savage, such an arrangement does an injustice to applicants who’ve struggled to overcome  technological barriers and other obstacles as they attempt to secure supporting documents and submit their HAF applications.  

“We have clients who applied as far back as June of last year, submitted additional documents in September and are awaiting a decision,” said Savage, Legal Counsel for the Elderly’s director of litigation and managing attorney for consumer advocacy and homeowner preservation practice. “Other clients who applied in March and April have been approved and are pending. With the closure, how do you choose who gets the money in a fair and equitable manner?” 

Legal Counsel for the Elderly, located in Northwest, provides foreclosure prevention and other free legal services to older, low-income District residents.  Over the last two years, attorneys at the organization have identified HAF as the best way to save clients’ homes. 

A 2022 report by the D.C. Black Ownership Strike Force, of which Savage is a member, recommended the creation of a program, like HAF, for Black homeowners who are in risk of foreclosure due to outstanding mortgage and related housing fee payments. However, with the Fiscal Year 2025 budget solidified, Savage questioned whether the D.C. government would even be able to supplement the existing homeowner assistance program with local dollars. 

Savage said that, despite DHCD’s assurances of an equitable process for distribution of funds, there’s no way to ensure that the agency could make payments for homeowners currently on the waitlist. 

“It shouldn’t be on the homeowner if the District wasn’t able to accurately track money in the program,” Savage told The Informer. “In a tight budget season, this should be a priority. We know how hard it is to get folks into home ownership. And we know there’s nowhere else for folks to go. Homeownershp is more affordable than going into the market.” 

Other HAF Applicants Reflect on Their Experience

Bernadette Presley, a homeowner of 21 years who lives in Southeast, counts among those who applied for utility and mortgage assistance through HAF. At the advice of her housing counselor, she initially submitted her application for utility relief while continuing to work on her mortgage assistance request, which she later added to her application. 

During the pandemic, Presley’s three tenants lost their jobs and they were no longer able to pay rent. As such, Presley lost a significant funding source for her mortgage. In the months that followed, she struggled to pay her mortgage and utilities on her limited income. 

By October 2023, when Presley applied for utility assistance, her home went into foreclosure and her water bill hit the $8,000 mark. As she recounted, she waited for months without word from DHCD about when she would receive the funds for her water bill. 

The agency hadn’t said much about her mortgage relief request either, she noted. 

“The fear of being homeless has been hanging over me for the last couple of years,” said Presley, 67. “When I first started this process, I got kind of excited and submitted everything they asked me for and I didn’t get a response. There’s no assistance for me to find somewhere else to go if I can’t pay my mortgage. The housing situation isn’t looking too good.” 

In April, nearly six months after she applied for utility assistance, Presley learned that DHCD inquired about her daughter’s name on a utility bill she used as proof of residency. She said she responded to that question and submitted more documentation,as requested. 

A letter that DHCD sent Presley showed that the agency not only confirmed receipt of her additional supporting documents, but warned her that they wouldn’t be able to provide assistance to her and other applicants who either had pending applications or made appeals. 

Presley pointed out that, in the letter, DHCD mischaracterized her as an homeowner who applied for utility assistance twice — not someone who applied for different types of assistance,for the first time, on separate occasions. This oversight, she pointed out, would likely push her to the back of a line that’s spiraling out of control. 

“You’re punishing me because two applications were submitted, but you never responded to the first one. I think I deserve a bit more than that,” Presley said. “Every time they ask for something, I do it in a timely manner.” 

A HAF applicant who asked to be identified as Mr. M said that, in light of DHCD’s recent announcement about HAF, he’s accumulating information about other local and federal programs, and exploring the possibility of entering mediation with his home lender. 

“When you’re dealing with the government, you need your mind on two tracks: what’s immediately in front of you and the other track where [you’re thinking about if] this might not work,” Mr. M said. “The last thing you want to do is be in panic mode or unprepared.” 

During the latter part of last year, Mr. M. submitted applications through the HAF portal for assistance with his mortgage, homeowner association fees, property tax and utilities. By that time, he was six months behind on his mortgage and facing foreclosure for a home that his late wife initially purchased. 

Mr. M. said that, in the aftermath of her 2017 death, his financial obligations doubled and would become even more unbearable during the pandemic. 

“COVID created a situation that became nightmarish and unmanageable,” he told The Informer. “That’s when I seriously took stock… to understand what my options might be.” 

From the onset, Mr. M. had an inkling that engaging DHCD during the HAF application process would be difficult. 

“No one talks to you there,” he said. “I’ve only spoken with someone… when I made my initial filing and I had trouble with the filing. They didn’t really help me, so I got help through housing counseling services.” 

Mr. M. told The Informer that the experience with DHCD brought to mind previous dealings he’s had with D.C. government agencies. Those encounters, he said, showed him that the residents most in need always end up with the short end of the stick.   

“It seems improbable to me that everything comes to a screeching halt and there’s no sort of information with regard to what that means,” Mr. M. said about HAF. “I just don’t find it coherent that the portal would simply stop. The statement [on the HAF site] is pretty unclear. There was some mention of if your application was pending, you would have to reapply, but it was pretty sketchy.”