Even fewer have actually received assistance. Most homeowners who have successfully signed up for the new system still haven’t had their applications reviewed. As a result, thousands of homeowners, many of whom have already waited months for help, are still in limbo. By late July, however, only about half the applications had been registered, partly because of widespread confusion over the process. Many homeowners are no closer to receiving aid than they were at the start of the year.Īmong the findings of Spotlight PA’s follow-up investigation:ĭue to legal requirements, homeowners with pending applications must register in the new system before they can get help. In June, PHFA Executive Director Robin Wiessmann told state lawmakers during a committee meeting that she was “very comfortable” that wait times were dropping once applicants were registered in the new system and “very confident about where the agency currently is.”Īlmost five months after the state took over, however, problems persist, the transition has in some cases created new ones, and the agency has barely made a dent in the backlog. The program had promised to prioritize the applicants in “greatest need,” including those at risk of having their utilities turned off, and wouldn’t that include him? “Everything else is good now…” he wrote. But his water had been shut off in early March and it was now the last week of April. Ramsey had already received help with his property taxes and electric bill, he explained in the email. The number of pending applications was three times larger than they initially believed. But state officials did not realize the scale of the problems. The agency said it would take over, promising improvements. Then the program was plunged into a series of upheavals.Īlmost fifteen months after hiring a company to run the program, PHFA ended the contract, citing a long list of problems: clunky software, long delays, unfair denials. “I mean no disrespect and I do appreciate all your help thus far,” he wrote to more than a dozen top officials at the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which runs a $350 million program that promises to help homeowners recover from the pandemic but has been hamstrung by internal crises.īefore the water was shut off, a program worker had assured Ramsey that his application was under review. Desperate for a shower, he wiped himself down with a damp cloth every few days instead. Ramsey, 49, had been brushing his teeth with bottled water, trying to use as little as possible because the cost of buying five or six cases each week quickly added up. Maybe things would go differently this time.
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