Keeping Ohioans housed has always been a top priority for Ohio’s legal aid organizations. Now, thanks to a collaborative partnership with the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), legal aid is helping more homeowners experiencing pandemic-related economic hardship avoid foreclosure by combining civil legal services with funds from the Save the Dream Ohio: Help for Homeowners program.
Save the Dream, made possible by $280 million awarded from the federal government to the state of Ohio through the American Rescue Plan Act, helps Ohio homeowners at risk of foreclosure access funds to pay their mortgage, property taxes, utility bills, or other housing costs. Access to these funds is life-changing for Ohioans who lost employment during the pandemic, could not work due to COVID illness, or experienced other hardships. In addition to paying housing-related expenses, the funds can also pay for legal aid attorneys’ time to help low-income homeowners navigate the process.
“Having this money is crucial to helping support homeowners right now,” said Stephanie Moes, managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio. “There are not as many options for loan modifications as were available during the Great Recession, and rising interest rates have really made it essential that these funds are accessible.”
When OHFA started developing Save the Dream, legal aid was at the table from the beginning, offering suggestions on how to structure the program. One recommendation that legal aid attorneys like Moes and Stacy Purcell, Ohio Access to Justice Foundation Justice for All Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, made was to open the program to homeowners with tangled titles, a problem that occurs when the deed to a property is not in the name of the person living in the house. A tangled title sometimes happens when a parent owns the home and passes away, and the surviving relatives continue to live in the home without changing the name on the deed.
“Homeowners with a tangled title are often some of the most vulnerable,” said Purcell. “It’s a real triumph that their families could buy a house in the first place in earlier generations. And now, because they haven’t had access to lawyers or estate planners, they are often shut out of these assistance funds.”
Thanks to legal aid’s advocacy, OHFA agreed to allow homeowners with tangled titles access the Save the Dream funds, enabling legal aid attorneys across Ohio to save more homes. In bi-weekly meetings, legal aid continues to work closely with OHFA, most recently recommending that OHFA opens Save the Dream to homeowners in land contracts, an often-predatory path to homeownership that disproportionately impacts Black Ohioans.
Legal aid attorneys like Moes and Purcell will continue to work with OHFA until the Save the Dream funds run out, predicted to occur in the next 8-10 months based on current expenditures. Moes hopes that the state of Ohio will fund a similar program for homeowners after Save the Dream ends because of how much it has done to help Ohioans maintain the American dream of homeownership.
“The pandemic has not affected us all equally,” Purcell said. “Minority and Black homeowners are the ones who have faced the most economic challenges and who are subsequently most at risk of foreclosure. Having access to this money allows them, and allows me, to help them stay in their homes.”
The Ohio Access to Justice Foundation is the largest funder of civil legal aid in Ohio. A gift to the Foundation supports legal aid’s housing work.