Protecting homeowners from foreclosure
Brenda Piccard’s voice trembles with emotion as she recalls how one of her clients, 82-year-old John Boydack, nearly lost his home to foreclosure.
“He’s a veteran. His grandfather built the house. It’s the only house he ever knew,” said Piccard, a senior housing counselor for New Vue Communities in Fitchburg. New Vue was one of 10 housing counseling agencies MHP partnered with to ensure that homeowners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic could receive help with their mortgage and property charges through the Massachusetts Homeowner Assistance Fund (Mass HAF).
Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Mass HAF helped Massachusetts homeowners impacted by COVID-19. At the request of the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, Mass HAF was administered by MHP (along with a smaller program administered by MassHousing for its own borrowers). Boydack found out about Mass HAF just as the program was winding down and with Piccard’s assistance Boydack completed his application in the final weeks of the program, in order for his application to be processed and approved.
Piccard worked with MHP HAF Case Management Program Manager Kelly Guenther, other program staff, and the Attorney General’s Office to get the required information from Boydack’s servicer as time was of the essence – Boydack was at risk for foreclosure and the program was ending. Their efforts were successful. Boydack was approved and the program stopped the foreclosure on his home.
“It was exciting,” Piccard said. “It happened on Thanksgiving. I went to his house with congratulations and a card. He didn’t have family. He knew he would have lost his house. He was stunned.”
Brenda Piccard and John Boydack in front of his home.
Boydack said he had a different holiday in mind when Piccard came to his house that day. “It was like a Christmas present,” he said, “a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I don’t drive due to health concerns and don’t have a computer to obtain documents. I am forever grateful to Brenda. She is my angel.”
According to MHP HAF Program Director Maureen Flynn, Boydack was one of nearly 6,000 homeowners MHP was able to serve through the Mass HAF program. Boydack’s home was one of more than 300 foreclosure sales MHP was able to stop. MHP distributed more than $126 million by the end of the program. The U.S. Treasury set goals for the percentage of 100 percent AMI and below households and “socially disadvantaged” households the program would serve. MHP far exceeded those goals. A majority of households served were Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
“The thing that made the difference, and I’ve been doing this a long time, helping homeowners who are in foreclosure, is having so many partners that we could call on,” said Flynn, “the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, the Attorney General’s Office, the Division of Banks, the servicers, the housing counselors, and that we had the money to provide to the servicers on behalf of the homeowners. That was crucial to the program.”
“It was exciting. It was something we had never done before, administering a federal program of this magnitude,” said MHP Executive Director Clark Ziegler. “Unlike other states we used these federal funds to fully reinstate mortgages for people who were seriously delinquent. Many if not most of those households, but for the federal assistance we were able to provide, would have lost their homes. That crisis was averted for thousands of families.”
To thank its partners and celebrate the completion of the program, MHP hosted a Mass HAF Appreciation Event. An emotional Piccard stood before the crowd and shared the story of her journey with Boydack to halt his foreclosure.
“To see his face and see how happy he was. It was worth it,” Piccard said. “He deserved it. “I would do it all over again for him.”
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