Facing Foreclosure? VA shares important Updates to help Veterans keep their homes

VA understands how stressful it can be to face the possibility of foreclosure, and it is committed to doing everything possible to help Veterans and their families stay in their homes. VA strongly encouraged mortgage servicers to continue to pause foreclosures of certain VA-guaranteed home loans through Dec. 31, 2024. This targeted moratorium will give Veterans and their families more time to explore all home retention options.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to find support and keep your home

What support options are available to you if you’re worried about foreclosure? With VA’s Home Retention Waterfall, there are a series of steps designed to provide you with multiple options to avoid foreclosure:

• If you’re facing short-term financial difficulties, there are forbearance agreements that could help you avoid foreclosure by temporarily reducing or pausing payments. Under this option, your loan payments will not be forgiven, but you will have the time you need to work through short-term challenges.
• If you’ve missed loan payments, you might be able to arrange a plan to catch up gradually. This is a called a repayment plan.
• If you need further assistance, the next step is a loan modification, which adjusts the rate and term of your loan to make payments more manageable. Under this scenario, a high-interest rate environment may cause your modified mortgage payment amount to increase.
• Finally, if these options aren’t enough and you’re experiencing severe hardship, VA’s new VASP program could be a last-resort option for qualifying Veterans. Through VASP, VA will purchase the modified loan from your loan servicer and then place it in the VA-owned portfolio as a direct loan—therefore making it more affordable.

How do you qualify for VASP?

Importantly, VASP is not something you can apply for directly with VA. Instead, if you exhaust all other home retention options, your mortgage servicer will evaluate whether you are qualified for VASP and submit a request on your behalf.

Who do you call to get the support you need?

If you’re facing financial hardship, you should first contact your mortgage servicer and work with them to explore all available home retention options. If you need additional support, you can always contact VA directly by calling 877-827-3702, option 4, or by visiting the VA Home Loans website for additional information.

VA is here to help you every step of the way. VA helped more than 145,000 Veterans and their families avoid foreclosure in 2023 alone, and it is committed to doing everything in its power to help all Veterans stay in their homes.

For further information on VA & State benefits, contact

Montgomery County Veterans Service at 936-539-7842 or via email [email protected], and on Facebook at Montgomery County Veterans Service.