The Importance of Running a Pilot Program for Your State HAF Plan

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The U.S. Department of the Treasury has begun approving plans for states and territories to use their shares of funding. States are  now opening their Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) programs now as a result of the Treasury approving state HAF plans. As of today, the Treasury has approved HAF plans for a total of 23 states. These states have gone live with their full programs; however, several states are still in the pilot phase and expected to go live soon. You can find a map showing the current progress of state HAF plans here on NCSHA’s website.

Tennessee recently went live with its full program on January 10 alongside a number of other states. The state was allocated with $168M in funding by the Treasury, and on June 9, 2021 Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) chose ProLink+ as the deployment platform. With the very first homeowner being funded on September 20, it took 103 days from contract signing to fund deployment. ProLink is also playing a leading role in HAF implementation for THDA, including coordination with service providers as well as assisting in homeowner education. If you are a homeowner living in Tennessee and in need of assistance, please visit the THDA website for more information.

When navigating through a pilot program, you’re able to address unanticipated issues and are better equipped to go live afterwards. Tennessee is one of the first states in the nation to have executed a pilot program. Going through a pilot helped THDA address a few challenges they faced, including mortgage servicer coordination and program outreach to the public. When asked what motivated them to move so quickly with their pilot program, Denise Hutchinson, Assistant Director of Mortgage Assistance and Compliance at THDA, said “We handled our other programs in-house, software included. This was going to be new for us, so we felt like we needed that pilot in order to work out the kinks. It has been extremely beneficial.”

Highlights from ProLink Technology Live 2021

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This year, ProLink Solutions held an all-virtual conference, ProLink Technology Live 2021. The conference featured a number of guest speakers from all areas of the affordable housing industry and was split into two separate tracks, one for ProLinkHFA (multi-family) and one for ProLink+ (single-family). If you participated in the event, you can use this link to access the Attendee Hub for up to 90 days after the end of the event.

Keynote – Washington Update

We started the conference with a special keynote from Jennifer Schwartz,  the Director of Tax and Housing Advocacy at the National Council of State and Housing Agencies (NCSHA). Jennifer provided an update on Washington, and also touched up on a variety of topics including:

  • Using the Housing Credit to finance housing for extremely low-income households
  • Preserving housing credit properties
  • HUD programs and the Home Investments Partnership Program

8823 Compliance Panel

Kelly Encinias, the Customer Adoption Manager at ProLink, was joined by several speakers for a panel discussion on 8823 compliance and asked a number of questions, including:

  • Are there financial implications for agencies if a property fails to meet compliance?
  • What are some challenges that have been reported with maintaining compliance from property managers to HFAs?
  • Has compliance gotten more complicated over the years?

During this panel, Josh Brown, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at E&A Team, addressed various challenges that are inherent in compliance and affordable housing programs. “Generally, the nature of program compliance is that it continues to increase in complexity, and it’s constantly evolving. Programs will also compete and conflict with each other, adding to that complexity”.

ProLink+ What’s New and HAF Lessons Learned Panel

Bri Kreuter, the Executive Vice President at ProLink, was joined by several panelists to discuss the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) and lessons learned during the implementation of their HAF programs in Tennessee and Arkansas. Ro Arrington of Arkansas Development Finance Authority spoke passionately on the subject: “Let’s talk about people that are losing sleep at night because they are worried about losing their homes. And I’m fool enough to think that what we are doing here makes a big, big difference. And if we don’t have a sense of urgency, think about what one day, one week, and one month means for the people who we’re trying to get the money out.”

What to Expect from ProLink in the Coming Year

In 2022, ProLink plans to host a brand-new webinar series beginning in January. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest news from ProLink as well as news about the affordable housing industry.

Insight into the U.S. Treasury Update for Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) Allocation

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2021 and has last been updated on November 3, 2021 for accuracy.

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a new deadline for a Tribe, Tribally Designated Housing Entity (TDHE), or the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to submit a notice of funds request to be extended to November 15, 2021.

For state agencies, in August the Treasury announced a new deadline of August 20th by which they were required to submit the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) plan or notify the Treasury of the date they planned to submit a completed plan. The Treasury has provided an online portal where state agencies can upload their plans.

This notice is the latest of the series of HAF Plan submission deadline extensions the Treasury has allowed since June. In their late July announcement, the Treasury indicated that the deadline will be extended beyond July 31st but left it open-ended. With this latest update, state agencies are closing all loose ends on their HAF plans and preparing for the complete plan submissions. As noted by the Treasury, state agencies can choose not to submit the plan but notify the Treasury the date by which their plans will be submitted.

State agencies are busy analyzing available emergency fund deployment software solutions, and ancillary services from call service providers, loan processors, underwriters, and file audit and compliance processors. ProLink offers all services required for many states and we have been providing national webinars to apprise states of the software and services we can provide to assist in the administration of their HAF plans.

 

About the Homeowner Assistance Fund

The Homeowner Assistance Fund provides $9.961 billion in assistance nationally related to mortgages and housing, including:

  • A minimum of $50 million for each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
  • $498 million for Tribes or Tribally designated housing entities and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
  • $30 million for the territories of Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

You can read more about it on the U.S. Treasury website.

Loss Mitigation, a Hot Topic with the Treasury

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Most states have submitted their Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) plans to the U.S. Treasury in August. As of the publication of this blog, various states are engaged in active dialogues with the Treasury regarding their HAF plans. A hot topic of the discussions is the issue of integrating HAF into loss mitigation options that are already in place.

In a recent webinar hosted by the Urban Institute, panelist Stockton Williams, Executive Director of the National Council of State Housing Finance Agencies (NCSHA) explains, “Homeowner Assistance Fund really shouldn’t be seen as a stand-alone thing. It’s really a part of a suite of tools that are going to be available.” Williams was referring to loss mitigation options that are already available to homeowners who have mortgages with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), or the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

William Corbett, Senior Advisor at the Treasury, concurs with Stockton’s view. William said, “You have much better and, in some cases, very streamlined federal loss mitigation options that are available to homeowners. That won’t work for every homeowner… There will be some homeowners who will be able to get success from that…and homeowners that might not be able to get success from that. That’s one area where housing counselors can assist.” You can find a recording of the webinar on the Urban Institute’s website here.

At the upcoming industry event, ProLink Technology Live 2021, ProLink Solutions is hosting a panel with industry experts to discuss the latest HAF implementation issues including loss mitigation. The event is free and is open to all public agencies.

All session and speaker information can be found in the registration site.

Check out the site and register today!

Announcing ProLink Technology Live 2021!

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ProLink Solutions is opening our annual user conference to all public agencies nationwide this year. Join ProLink Technology Live 2021 on November 9 and 10. It’s a two-day virtual event with multiple tracks:

  • Track 1 – ProLinkHFA Multifamily is a 2-day track filled with software training as well as an 8823 Compliance panel made up of industry experts. Open to all public agencies.
  • Track 2 – ProLink+ HAF is a single day track (November 9) focused on Homeowner Assistance Fund implementation. Open to all public agencies.
  • Track 3 – ProLinkAIM is a single day track (November 10) and open only to ProLinkAIM users in the LIHTC syndication and investment space.

On November 9 at 11AM Eastern, we will kick off the conference with a special keynote speaker Jennifer Schwartz, Director of Tax and Housing Advocacy with the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), to provide affordable housing industry updates from Washington!

All session and speaker information can be found in the registration site.

The event is free. Check out the site and register today!

Tackling the Digital Divide in Urban and Rural Colorado

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Five percent of Colorado’s K-12 students lack access to affordable and reliable internet at home according to the study published by Colorado Futures Center (Access the full report here: https://www.coloradofuturescsu.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/colorado-remote-learning-impact-region-final.pdf). Housing Colorado, a non-profit organization in Colorado with a mission of promoting the preservation and production of quality affordable housing statewide, is hosting a webinar on September 21 to address the issue of the digital divide in urban and rural Colorado.

Ryan Kim, ProLink Solutions’ Director of Product Marketing, will be moderating the panel with two speakers, Jesse Burne with Denver Housing Authority and Josh Wehe with Jade Communications. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year, many of us conduct our day-to-day business virtually and take our access to high-speed internet for granted. Imagine if you or your kids didn’t have access to internet. How would you effectively compete whether at work or at school?” says Ryan.

In the webinar, the panelists will share their success stories in filling the digital gap. Denver Housing Authority has run a program called ConnectHome Denver, which tackles the issue in the urban area by creating local partnerships encompassing government agencies and multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). Jesse Burne, Strategic Initiatives Manager with the Housing Authority, will tell the story. Josh Wehe, Operations Director with Jade Communications, a smaller ISP in Southern Colorado, will provide a rural counterpart presentation. Jade Communications has assisted half a dozen school districts in low-income communities in the San Luis Valley region.

The webinar is scheduled for September 21 at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. Register here:
https://www.housingcolorado.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1548714&group=#

ProLink Integration Video Featured at NCSHA Annual Conference

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ProLink Solutions is a proud sponsor of the National Council of State Agencies (NCSHA) annual conference for 2021. Our video will be featured during the “Implementing the Homeowner Assistance Fund” panel on Monday, September 27 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

This video showcases new ProLink+ integrations with both DocuSign and Amazon QuickSight. With DocuSign eSignature, homeowners can sign the Hardship Affidavit quickly and easily. Amazon QuickSight allows agencies to view real-time reporting on critical fund distribution metrics, such as “Percent of Funds Disbursed,” “Average Days in Stage,” “Number of Applications per Stage,” and “Total Amount Disbursed by County.”

We invite you to watch our video about these exciting integrations below:


Register for the conference today to learn more about how ProLink+ can assist homeowners in your state.

Easy-to-Sign Hardship Affidavit with DocuSign

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The DocuSign eSignature integration into ProLink+ has made the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) application process even easier for the homeowners. For agencies, it minimizes risk for fraud where applicants might misrepresent their personal information.

As the last step before submitting the application, each applicant is required to digitally sign the Hardship Affidavit form. Once the form is signed by all parties, the application is submitted to the agency. Agency staff then processes the submitted application in the back-office system, which ultimately leads to providing mortgage payments to the loan servicer, if the application meets all required funding criteria.

We invite you to watch our video about this exciting DocuSign integration below:

Live Demo

We are also hosting a webinar via Zoom on August 18 at 1PM ET, where we will be performing a live demo of ProLink+. Come by and see what ProLink+ can do for you in managing your HAF program.

Click here to sign up for our webinar on August 18 and reserve your spot today!

ProLink+ Integrated with DocuSign and Amazon QuickSight

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We’re pleased to announce that our Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) deployment solution, ProLink+, has received some exciting new integrations with DocuSign and Amazon QuickSight. DocuSign eSignature enhances and simplifies the experience for homeowners applying for assistance, while Amazon QuickSight provides agency staff with a real-time, customizable analytical dashboard.

We invite you to watch our video about these changes, which was featured this year in NCSHA’s Housing Credit Connect 2021, below:

Live Demo

We are also hosting a webinar via Zoom on July 14 at 1PM ET, where we will be performing a live demo of ProLink+. Come by and see what ProLink+ can do for you in managing your HAF program.

Click here to sign up for our webinar on July 14 and reserve your spot today!

ProLink+ Upgraded with a New Look and Enhanced Functionality

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ProLink+, our software solution to assist states with their Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) deployment, has been upgraded with a new look and enhanced functionality. Our webinar series in April and May of this year, where we discussed HAF deployment challenges and our holistic approach, was attended by over 30 states altogether. We are excited to have practically half of the nation showing interest in ProLink+. In the upcoming June 16 webinar, we plan to reveal the new look and enhanced functionality, which will make HAF deployment even more efficient for states.

Click here to sign up for our 30-minute webinar on June 16 and reserve your spot today!

New Look

The Homeowner Portal received a face lift! The navigation is more intuitive and the portal is now mobile friendly. The redesign helps the HAF roll-out in your state be more effective because homeowners will find it even easier and faster to submit applications and supporting documentation.

Enhanced Functionality

The new DocuSign feature supports digital signatures for the applicant’s Hardship Affidavit. The homeowner receives an email notification with a link; with just a click of a button, the homeowner can sign the Hardship Affidavit anywhere, anytime.

Join us for the live demo of these new features on June 16 at 1PM Eastern. Sign up today!