Wyoming Homeowner Assistance Fund Program (HAF) - Wyoming Department of Family Services

Are you a Wyoming homeowner who has fallen behind on mortgage payments, utility bills or other housing-related costs? The Wyoming Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) Program focuses on helping Wyoming homeowners, who have been financially impacted by COVID-19 and meet eligibility criteria, stay in their homes.

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COVID-19 Hardship Requirement

Although the impact of COVID-19 is waning, the federal eligibility requirements still require applicants to have experienced a COVID-related financial hardship to be approved for funding. The HAF Program application requires applicants to select financial hardships they or their family members have experienced since Jan. 1, 2020. These include:

Job loss due to COVID-19 or its impacts
Job furlough due to COVID-19 or its impacts
Reduced hours due to COVID-19, resulting in take-home pay

Applicants must then briefly describe the relationship between the selected hardships and the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, an increase in medical expenses has to be tied to COVID-19, not another illness.

APPLICATIONS: Applications are available only online.
ELIGIBILITY: The program will be open to Wyoming homeowners who have been financially impacted by COVID-19 and meet eligibility criteria. The applicant’s household shall have a total household income at or below 150% of area median income (AMI).
AMOUNT: The HAF Program is a grant that allows a one-time award of up to $35,000.
APPLICATION ASSISTANCE: Please contact Liberty Smith, HAF Program Manager, directly at (307)-777-3737 or email homeowner.assistance@wyo.gov.
ELIGIBLE EXPENSES: Eligible expenses include delinquent mortgages, partial claim assistance, up to 3 consecutive months of forward mortgage payments and/or PAST DUE utilities, property taxes, homeowners insurance or homeowner association dues. Priority will be as follows: mortgage reinstatement, partial claim assistance, delinquent “other expenses”, then forward mortgages.
FLYER FOR HAF PROGRAM: If you or someone you know is interested in the HAF Program, please download and share the flyer. Download English version | Download the Spanish version

Review Times

Once homeowners submit a HAF application, the review times vary on a case per case basis. The review time depends on what assistance is requested, how quickly your mortgage lender returns the needed information, how quickly documents are returned and the number of applications received. Please ensure you provide all the needed information upfront so the process can go more quickly.

Below are estimated review times:

For forward mortgage months only, utility only or other case combinations with no delinquent mortgage, it takes approximately 3 to 4 weeks for cases not requiring additional information.
For cases requiring verification to be sent to your mortgage lender for a delinquent mortgage, it takes approximately 3 to 6 weeks. This time frame includes approximately 3 to 4 weeks for cases not requiring additional information plus up to 30 additional days for verification. Please note that a final determination won’t be made about your application until a response is received from your mortgage lender.
For cases requiring requests for information, it can take approximately 3 to 5 weeks.

Watch out for mortgage assistance scams

The Wyoming Department of Family Services cautions households to be wary of potential mortgage scams wanting personal financial information or asking you to pay upfront fees or transfer the deed of your home. The Wyoming Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) doesn’t charge fees for assistance. The majority of official correspondence from the HAF Program will come from NoReplyWYOHAF@wyo.gov (an automated email) or homeowner.assistance@wyo.gov. Additionally, the HAF call center uses the number 1-888-996-4237 and returns calls during the hours of 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

According to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, mortgage loan modification scams are schemes to take your money – often by making a false promise of saving you from foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission explains that these scammers promise they’ll get changes to your loan so you can keep your home but they want you to pay them an upfront fee before helping you. Don’t pay an upfront fee. It’s illegal for a company to charge you upfront fees for promises to help you get relief on paying your mortgage.

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