HUD News

Americans were facing numerous challenges when the Biden-Harris administration and Secretary took office. The challenges include covid-19 pandemic, lack of affordable housing supply, and increasing home prices. Despite these challenges, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has helped Millions of households to obtain and maintain homeownership. HUD has also used all the tools through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Government and the Office of Native American Programs to help American families. 

HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said, “At HUD, we have successfully implemented programs that have kept people in their homes and advanced opportunities for families of all incomes, especially low- and moderate-income families. Since the start of the Administration, we have made great strides to address historical discrimination in housing, created significant opportunities for first-time homebuyers, and invested in programs to bridge the wealth gap and create paths to homeownership.”

HUD has achieved significant milestones in expanding access to homeownership, supporting home retention during a pandemic, and addressing racial bias. 

Some of the things HUD has accomplished include reducing barriers for first-time homebuyers, helping people stay in their homes during a pandemic, and addressing racial biases in homeownership. 

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to the end of fiscal year 2023, nearly two million FHA and ONAP homeowners affected by COVID-19 were granted forbearance to temporarily pause or reduce mortgage payments. In 2021, FHA and ONAP introduced new measures to assist homeowners in bringing their mortgages up to date, regardless of whether they had utilized forbearance. 

These initiatives simplified processes for both borrowers and lenders and introduced options to lower mortgage payments for those facing financial difficulties. Through ongoing improvements in loss mitigation home retention options, from March 2020 to September 30, 2023, FHA and ONAP have aided or are in the process of assisting over 1.1 million homeowners in keeping their homes through mortgage modifications and permanent monthly payment reductions.

HUD also led the first-of-its-kind interagency task force which is committed to rooting out racial biases in home evaluations. Besides this, HUD also signed a memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on fair housing and fair lending enforcement.