Frequently Asked Questions

Forbearance is when your mortgage lender temporarily reduces or pauses your monthly payments during financial hardship. You still owe the money. It's not forgiveness, just a temporary pause.

Forbearance is temporary relief where payments are paused/reduced but still owed. Loan modification permanently changes your loan terms (interest rate, payment amount, loan length) to make it more affordable long-term.

A balloon payment is when all your deferred payments during forbearance become due at once in a lump sum. For example, if you deferred $8,000/month for 12 months, you'd owe $96,000 all at once at the conclusion of those 12 months.

Instead of paying everything at once (balloon payment), the deferred payments are added to the end of your loan. So if you had 20 years left, now you might have 22 years, but manageable monthly payments.

Underinsured means your insurance payout won't cover the full cost to rebuild your home. This often happens due to inflation in construction costs, building code upgrades, or inadequate coverage limits.

Yes. Mortgages are loans secured by property/land, not just the house. Homeowners still owe the loan even if the house is gone.

This policy creates a precedent for fair disaster relief nationwide. Today it's wildfires in California, tomorrow it could be hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes in your area. Supporting this ensures better protection for all disaster survivors.

The CalAssist Mortgage Fund provides grants of up to $20,000 (covering three months of mortgage payments) to California homeowners whose primary residence was destroyed or made uninhabitable by the wildfires. California significantly expanded eligibility - survivors with household incomes up to $211,050 may now qualify. The grants are paid directly to survivors’ mortgage servicer and never have to be repaid. Learn more and apply at CalAssistMortgageFund.org.

No. This proposal only applies to federally declared disasters and requires documentation of property damage. It's not loan forgiveness. Payments are deferred, not eliminated. Borrowers still owe the full amount. It is meant to be a simple and straightforward relief measure for all parties involved.

AB 238 is a California law signed in 2025 that gives wildfire survivors up to 12 months of mortgage forbearance and foreclosure during that period, and requires loans to be reported as current so credit scores aren’t harmed.

AB 238 is an important step, but it only addresses what California can control at the state level. The problem is that wildfire survivors often need 24–36+ months to rebuild. Once the 12 months expire, families are again exposed with no protections against huge lump-sum repayments, negative credit reporting, or foreclosure while still displaced.

Yes! Legislators track constituent contact carefully, especially on specific policy issues. Personal stories and local impact data are particularly powerful. Even a few dozen letters can influence a representative's position.

FEMA helps with short-term needs like temporary housing, but most survivors either don’t qualify or receive amounts far too small to cover the real cost of rebuilding. More importantly, FEMA does nothing about ongoing mortgage payments on homes that are gone. This policy closes that gap, preventing foreclosure while victims rebuild.

SBA disaster loans can help cover gaps, but they create new debt on top of an existing mortgage. Many fire survivors are already stretched, and adding another loan means higher monthly payments when they’re still displaced and waiting on insurance. Mortgage relief isn’t about borrowing more; it’s about aligning existing obligations with the long rebuild timeline.

Natural disasters are sudden, widespread, and beyond individual control. They also involve government disaster declarations and coordinated relief efforts. This creates a clear, limited scope that prevents abuse.

Yes. After Hurricane Katrina, some banks voluntarily extended forbearance periods. This policy would make such extensions standard and automatic for all federally declared disasters.

That's when most current forbearance agreements end and balloon payments come due. Without action, families face impossible lump-sum payments of $50-100K+ while still displaced and rebuilding.