Homeowner funds headed Pa.'s way

By Alan J. Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Writer

Seven months after the government announced a $1 billion plan to help jobless homeowners stave off foreclosure, Pennsylvania is finally getting the $105.8 million it had been promised.

In fact, Pennsylvania will be the first of the 27 states participating in the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program to begin processing applications, starting this month.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday that the state Housing Finance Agency's 28-year-old Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, known as HEMAP, is "substantially similar" to the federal program, "thereby allowing Pennsylvania to begin implementing the program itself."

The federal effort actually was modeled after the state program, which has helped more than 45,000 unemployed homeowners keep their houses since the early 1980s.