Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces First-In-The-Nation $539 Million Homeowner Assistance Fund to Assist Eligible New Yorkers at Risk of Foreclosure or Displacement

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that New York State is the first state in the nation to receive U.S. Department of the Treasury's approval to launch its Homeowner Assistance Fund, a program that will provide up to $539 million to help eligible homeowners avert mortgage delinquency, default, foreclosure, and displacement. Applications will be accepted beginning Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on Flickr.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Good afternoon. And thank you Annetta for your impassioned remarks to talk about the people that you represent so strongly and in such a committed way to make sure that their voices are lifted up. And that's what this is all about. Making sure that no one who has suffered from this pandemic, who, whether they were a renter, we focus very intensely on the rental relief programs, which you said, had been held hostage for a while or not executed in a timely fashion, but also at the same time, we are very conscious of the fact that there are many, many homeowners who are suffering just as well. Those who are living on the margins to start, who lost their income because of no fault of their own because of the pandemic and got behind in their payments, or were not able to make their other payments to be able to live in their home.

So I want to thank you for everyone at Chhaya for continuing the outreach and giving people hope. And that is something we need to do to make sure that they don't give up. And they know that there are government programs to assist them. So I want to thank you. I also want to thank the individuals who deserve the credit for this.

And let's start with where this all originated in Washington, D.C. The administration of President Joe Biden, hearing the call of millions of U.S citizens who suffered from this pandemic like no other, making sure that it got through Congress and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Gillibrand all the way to our congressional delegation.

I want to thank the Dean of that delegation, Jerry Nadler, for his tireless advocacy to make sure that New York was able to get funding like this it is so critically important, all the way down to our legislature, our leaders, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader of the Senate, who you'll be hearing from shortly and Speaker Carl Heastie made sure that their conferences pulled together with us to make sure that we did what was right for the people we represent.

Also, I want to thank Senator Kavanagh, who we'll be hearing from shortly whose voice has long been heard in the space of protecting both tenants and homeowners, not just in his district, across the state. As well as Assemblymember Cymbrowitz who will be delivering remarks from Zoom as well. So I want to just make sure that this is not about one person being able to deliver a program. It is a concerted effort of all these leaders that are represented here and those that are back in Washington, who made this happen in the first place.

This is a critically important program. It is something that we're proud to have applied for. It was applied for back in August and we just received word from the federal administration on November 15th that the money was available and New York State is the first in the nation to be approved for this.

So we're launching a very intense outreach campaign, an education campaign, and we anticipate that application will be able to be accepted beginning January 3rd. We wanted to get the word out now. We brought on countless individuals, 70 organizations, to be helping us get the word out to people and help them out.

So we are very anxious to get this funding out there. And as you heard, these are for people who are homeowners who are in a forbearance plan who fell behind on their mortgage. And also those who are not offered forbearance, they were just told that they're losing their home. Also those who are behind on a condo and condo owners and co-op owners who might be behind on their maintenance fees, as well as those who live in manufactured homes who are behind on their loans.

So it's not just one size fits all. There's many people who have been affected by this and this addresses each one of them. So we're beginning with the vulnerable communities first. And as you heard from Annetta here's many of them who were actually suffering from the pandemic and then hit with the hurricane.

So they've been suffering intensely, particularly in the neighborhood in Queens that you referenced where I did spend many days walking in those neighborhoods where people were just so devastated by what they've had to go through for the last 20 months. So we wanted to make this simple, make sure that people understand how to apply, learn from some of our past.

Examples of getting federal dollars out and streamlining it. These should not be so complicated that people give up. And that's what we've seen in the past. So there'll be a simple application. NYHomeownerFund.org is where we want to go. We'll be processing applications as they come in first come. First serve.

And we will have prioritizing homeowners who are already in litigation. Those who are most at risk of being evicted from their homes and will protect those highest at risk of being in displacement. So that's what we're focused on, making sure we get this money out there and ensuring that we protect New Yorkers in every sense of the word.

And when you think about insecurities, to a family that is sitting in their home, knowing that the world is swirling around them. And they're just so stressed out and they're thinking about what they can possibly do to stop this foreclosure from happening, the loss of their beloved home. This is the lifeline that they've been waiting for.

We are very anxious to get this out to people in need. We have our partners on the ground who are going to make sure that it is available and make sure that every person who applies it will try to lift all the barriers to them. That's why we're going to have this available in 10 languages. That's why we're going to make sure that if someone is not able to apply online, even if they get help from a friend or family member, that there is actually a phone number they can call to apply that way as well.

Trying to identify all the areas where people have been stressed out. It's been hard for them in the past and trying to work through them as we speak. So this is going to be a significant improvement and letting people know that we're continuing this on top of the rent relief program, we were able to get out there.

This actually is, people who are eligible for this are also individuals who own anywhere from one to four units. If it's owner occupied, they can be eligible for this as well. And so we are announcing today that we have $539 million approved by the federal government for this important homeowner assistance fund, again, to help low and moderate homeowners, try to just hang in there a little bit longer.

So I wanted to be able to announce some of the other individuals who'll be speaking to you today. And I want to tell them how much I appreciate what they have done. This is when we talk about what people do in Washington and our State Capitol. These are the kinds of programs that result from that collaborative spirit, the sense that we have a crisis, we have to help people in need. And that's what you're seeing here today. The benefit of this.

And I also want to thank RuthAnne Visnauskas, our Commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal, for her team, for the extraordinary efforts that they've done, making sure that this was done. That's why we're the first in America to be able to get this money out to people, particularly before the holidays.

Let them know that they can apply early in January. This is coming. Help is on its way for literally thousands of families who've been hurt so hard by the pandemic. So I thank everybody. And I want to just get some more of the details out to all of you. I think we'll show that on a screen. Maybe the screen will not change and that's okay with me.

I think I just told you what we need. So with that, let me introduce Jerry Nadler, the Dean of the delegation for his remarks. Thank you.