Help is now available for more Californians who are behind on their mortgages

Abstract

The program is now offering help to households earning as much as 150% of their county's median income, up from the original 100%. For a family of four in Los Angeles County, the new limit is $178,650, according to the program's calculator. The program will pay a qualified homeowner's mortgage debt in full, provided it was no more than $80,000 when they applied. Previously, the program covered delinquent taxes just for applicants who paid taxes through a lender's escrow account. Since the program launched in January it has doled out only a fraction of that money - $69 million to about 2,000 households, or an average of $35,000 per successful applicant. One catch: If your lender isn't one of the many taking part in the program, you can't obtain the state's help. For help filling one out, you can call the program's contact center at 1-888-840-2594, where assistance is available in English and Spanish. According to the program's website, among the documents you will need to provide are a mortgage statement, bank statements, utility bills and records that show the income earned by every adult in your household, such as pay stubs, tax returns or a statement of unemployment benefits.