There are a lot of folks living on payday loans and stuff. This is to try to help folks dig themselves out of the hole before something bad happens. It’s free money. Anybody who can meet the requirements should take advantage of it.
Come Dream Come Build wants residents of Cameron and Willacy counties who are struggling with mortgage, utility or property tax payments to know that help is available — but not indefinitely.
CDCB, formerly the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville, announced April 11 that the Texas Homeowner Assistance program still has federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to help homeowners left in a financial bind by the COVID-19 pandemic.
CDCB, which administers the program in Cameron and Willacy, is currently assisting homeowners apply for up to $65,000 to cover past-due mortgages, property taxes, utility bills, homeowner association fees and insurance.
Up to $25,000 can go for past-due property taxes and $10,000 for past-due utility payments. Payments are made directly to loan providers, taxing authorities, insurance companies and so on rather than to homeowners.
CDCB Executive Director Nick Mitchell-Bennett said it’s the last of the ARPA funds for homeowners assistance and that he prefers not to have to return any unspent funds to the federal government if he can help it.
“We want to get it out there because they’re going to wrap it up, so we want to make sure everybody hears about it,” he said.
Mitchell-Bennett said he wouldn’t be surprised if many residents who could use the help have never heard of the program and added that enough funds remain to assist hundreds of eligible homeowners.
The program is open to residents, including non-U.S. citizens, who own and occupy a home in Texas as their primary residence, are behind on the types of payments listed, experienced financial hardship due to the pandemic (after Jan. 2020), and have a household income at or below 100 percent of Area Median Income or 100 percent of the U.S. median income, whichever is greater.
CDCB staff are in the two counties throughout the week helping clients. For more information or to apply for assistance through the program, call (956) 371-5344.
“We can either help them by phone or meet them in person,” Mitchell-Bennett said. “We also invite homeowners in need to visit our Brownsville office located at 901 E. Levee St. if they need more information and to apply in person.”
“You don’t even have to be low-income,” he said. “(The government) is just trying to make sure that we don’t have another foreclosure crisis, and there’s still quite a few people teetering on the edge … who are still trying to dig themselves out of the hole from COVID.”
“There are a lot of folks living on payday loans and stuff. This is to try to help folks dig themselves out of the hole before something bad happens. It’s free money. Anybody who can meet the requirements should take advantage of it,” he said.
