Deadline Nears for Expanded Homeowners Assistance Program

By Amaani Lyle

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2012 – Eligible military members and federal civilian employees who face financial loss when selling their primary residence may receive compensation, provided they apply for the Expanded Homeowners Assistance Program by Sept. 30.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages HAP on behalf of the military branches. The HAP, initially created by Congress in 1966, provides financial assistance to qualifying homeowners when a closure or significant change in operations at a military base leads to severe losses in the local real estate market.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5, expanded the HAP to provide assistance to:

-- Deployed wounded, injured, or ill members of the Armed Forces (30% or greater disability) and forward deployed wounded, injured, or ill Department of Defense and Coast Guard civilian homeowners (including employees of non-appropriated fund instrumentalities) reassigned in furtherance of medical treatment or rehabilitation or due to medical retirement in connection with their disability;

-- Surviving spouses of the fallen;

-- Base Realignment and Closure 2005-impacted homeowners relocating during the mortgage crisis; and

-- Service member homeowners undergoing Permanent Change of Station moves during the mortgage crisis.

“The amended law now includes HAP relief for surviving spouses of the fallen, BRAC 2005-impacted homeowners relocating during the mortgage crisis, and service member homeowners undergoing permanent-change-of-station moves during the mortgage crisis,” said Michael McAndrew, director of facilities investment and management office for the deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment.

Key expanded HAP deadlines and qualifying timeframes have already passed, McAndrew said, further escalating the urgency of swift benefit distribution and program closure.

“Reassignment order dates must range from Feb. 1, 2006, through Sept. 30, 2010, and qualifying property purchases, or signed contracts to purchase must have occurred prior to July 1, 2006,” McAndrew said. “BRAC reached its full implementation by Sept. 15, 2011.”

The total benefit calculation, capped at $729,750, is based upon the home purchase price, McAndrew said.

“We’ve made every effort to try and make funds available to pay as many of these applications as we can, and so far we’ve been very successful in doing that,” McAndrew explained, adding that the program is designed to minimize the housing market’s impact, not negate it altogether.

“It’s a great program, but we can’t help folks if they don’t apply,” McAndrew said. “We need to know who is out there because there’s no magic database in the department that tells us who may have been impacted.”

Wounded, injured and ill and surviving spouse applications take priority and are not be subject to the Sept. 30, 2012, deadline for claims.

All applications are now centrally processed through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District. To apply, visit the HAP web site and follow application instructions.

Dempseys Discuss Challenges, Benefits of Military Moves

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

GRAPEVINE, Texas, June 28, 2012 – The frequent relocations common to military life may be challenging to families, but they also are one way children become resilient and adaptable -- attributes critical to the military of the future, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey made the comments as part of an informal “fireside chat” at the National Military Child Education Coalition’s 14th national training seminar. He was joined by his wife, Deanie, and retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient and vice chairman of the Medal of Honor Foundation, who asked the couple broad questions about today’s military.

The Dempseys moved 22 times in 36 years of service, they said, and all three of their children have served in the Army.

“In some ways, it is a burden,” the general said, “but it also is how our kids become resilient and adaptable. Part of being adaptable is being introduced to unfamiliar circumstances.”

It is those attributes that the military is “really going to need,” Dempsey said, “because we never [predict] the future right.

“In some ways, the military profession and its values and the versatility you have to have as a military family is really quite strengthening,” he added.

That resilience and adaptability starts with how parents handle the moves with their children, Mrs. Dempsey said. “It starts with the family and if you make each move an adventure -- and you’ve got to really sell some places,” she said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Also, “it’s the fraternity of the military family,” she said. “You can say [to the kids], ‘You will make new friends,’ or ‘You’ll be with Johnny and Susie from two moves ago.’”

Many military children grow up to enter the military themselves, Mrs. Dempsey noted.

“If it were that bad, they wouldn’t serve, too,” she said.

Military families also have more support than ever, the Dempseys said. As demands on military families skyrocketed after the 9/11 attacks and through 10 years of war, Americans have responded, many through public-private partnerships, which the chairman described as the best form of support. He credited the nonprofit education coalition as being one example of such support.

The chairman also credited the “Joining Forces” campaign created last year by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, for its efforts to raise public awareness of military families’ challenges and sacrifices and to call on all sectors of society to support them.

Such organizations are “making a difference,” Dempsey said.

“This is about public-private partnerships. This is not the government imposing the idea that we should take care of service members and their families,” he said. “It’s about the government advocating that [support of military members and their families], and about the people of the United States’ communities and corporations stepping up.

“That’s partly a reflection of what we’ve asked our service members and their families to step up and do in these past 10 years, which is remarkable,” he added.

It also has helped, Mrs. Dempsey said, that there are many more programs today to help military families, and fewer divisions among rank.

“It used to be that officers and enlisted wives were separate,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re all military spouses and we all just want them home.”

DOD Supports Job, Homeowner Proposals for Military, Veterans

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2012 – The Defense Department supports legislative proposals that would provide increased career support and homeowner protections to military members and veterans, a senior defense official told Congress today.

“Taking care of our military before, during and after their service to our country is one of the Department of Defense’s highest priorities,” Frederick E. Vollrath, who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for readiness and force management, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on economic opportunity. He thanked the committee for efforts to address some of the economic challenges service members and their families face during active duty and as they transition into civilian life.

Vollrath joined representatives of the Veterans Affairs and Labor departments, as well as veterans organizations representatives, to weigh in on four bills he said would significantly affect service members and veterans. The hearing was cut short so the subcommittee members could get to the House floor for a vote, but Vollrath submitted written testimony outlining the Defense Department positions.

Two of the proposed bills, the Hire at Home Act and the Help Veterans Return to Work Act, focus on jobs.

DOD supports the Hire at Home Act, which encourages states to consider training when granting civilian credentials, Vollrath said. If passed, the law would require states to consider a veteran’s military training when processing applications to become nursing assistants, registered nurses, emergency medical technicians or commercial drivers.

Vollrath noted the new DOD-led Credentialing and Licensing Task Force stood up to help service members and veterans apply skills learned in the military to earn credentials, certifications and licenses across a broad range of civilian occupations.

The task force, Vollrath explained, will identify military specialties that readily transfer to high-demand jobs, initially focusing on the manufacturing, health care, information technology, logistics and first-responder sectors. It also will work with civilian credentialing and licensing associations to address any requirements not covered by military training, will and help service members get greater access to certification and licensing exams.

“The Department of Defense provides high-quality training to service members, and this high-quality training is closely linked to many of the high-demand, high-growth occupations in the civilian sector,” Vollrath told the panel.

“Our men and woman have done incredible work, mastered cutting-edge technologies and adapted to unpredictable situations,” he continued. “Those skills are what America needs for the jobs and industries of the future.”

Vollrath was less enthusiastic about language in the Help Veterans Return to Work Act, which he said actually would limit use of an “undue hardship” defense under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. As written, he said, the bill would limit this defense so it could be claimed only by small businesses.

“The Defense Department shares the goal of ensuring that the undue hardship exception is used in ways that reinforce the law’s intent,” he said.

DOD supports the intent of two other bills that would expand the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to increase mortgage protections to military members, Vollrath reported.

The Military Family Protection Act seeks to improve protections for service members and surviving spouses against mortgage foreclosures. It seeks to expand protections for troops serving in support of contingency operations, veterans who are disabled at retirement, and surviving spouses of service members whose deaths were service-connected or occurred while supporting a contingency operation. The bill also would extend these protections to cover obligations made both before and after military service.

The department also supports the Fairness for Military Homeowners Act, Vollrath told the panel. If passed, it would ensure that military members who move away from their principal residences for active duty aren’t prevented from refinancing the mortgages on those properties.

Vollrath said this measure is consistent with the overall goals of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to ensure the consumer rights of military members are not unfairly limited because they serve in the military.

He expressed concern, however, that the legislation could affect loan subsidy costs, and said DOD will continue to review the bill and offer technical help as needed.

New Financial Guidance May Help Troops as They Move

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2012 – New guidance to mortgage servicers may help tens of thousands of military homeowners moving to new duty stations, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials said today.

The bureau, along with mortgage service industry regulators, is issuing joint supervisory guidance to address mortgage service practices that pose risks to military homeowners, Richard Cordray, the bureau’s director, said at a news conference.

“We want to make sure that mortgage servicers comply with the laws that prohibit unfair or abusive practices” when service members have orders to move, he said.

Roughly a third of active-duty military personnel move each year. Of these, about 185,000 are homeowners who have to sell their houses and move to another community. Many find themselves owing far more on their homes than they’re worth in the current market.

Service members cannot sit on a property and wait for the market to recover: they must go to their new base, Cordray noted. “They have to move, even if that means taking a big financial hit or leaving their families behind to pay their bills,” he said.

“I have heard over and over from military homeowners whose houses are underwater and they don’t know what to do,” said Holly Petraeus, director of the bureau’s Officer of Service Member Affairs. “They are terrified that a foreclosure will ruin their finances as well as putting their security clearances at risk, and they are looking for answers.”

But in too many cases, she said, mortgage service providers have not given that help. In her travels to military bases, Petraeus said, service members have told her of mortgage service providers giving them inaccurate information and stringing them along.

“We’ve heard from service members that they were told they had to be delinquent to qualify for help, and advised to skip a couple of payments,” she said. “They’ve been asked to sign waivers of their rights under the Service Members Civil Relief Act just to have their cases evaluated. They’ve been stalled by repeated demands for their loan documents and given a new loan official with each call, … and they have even been listed as not responding to requests for documents during deployment despite the fact that spouses had powers of attorney.”

Edward J. DiMarco, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, spoke of the changes to policies to help military homeowners. “These changes will make it easier for members of the armed forces with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to honor their financial commitments when they are issued a permanent change of station order,” he said. The agency classifies the order as a hardship, he noted.

Homeowners with transfer orders will be immediately eligible for a short sale, even if they are current in their mortgages, DiMarco said. They also will be “exempt from deficiency judgments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when receiving permission for a short sale and relieved of any request or requirement for cash, contribution or promissory note so long as the property was purchased on or before June 30, 2012.”

Robert L. Gordon III, assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy, said the Defense Department welcomes the bureau’s leadership.

“The military lifestyle poses unique challenges to our troops and their families,” he said. “Throughout frequent moves, deployments and transitions they must remain resilient and strong in order to be mission ready.”