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

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.”