Full Notification

As part of the continued effort to help contain the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy today outlined a series of steps underway to help aid those in immediate financial need and keep people in their homes during the crisis, including actions to protect residents from eviction or foreclosure that are as expansive as any in the nation.

Today the Governor signed A-3859 into law, which explicitly provides authority to the Governor to issue an executive order declaring a moratorium on removing individuals from their homes pursuant to an eviction or foreclosure proceeding. The Governor then immediately signed Executive Order No. 106, which imposes such a moratorium. This move will ensure that no renter or homeowner is removed from their residence while this Order is in effect. These actions come a day after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac would be suspending all foreclosures and evictions for at least 60 days.

The Governor also is asking any financial institution holding residential or commercial mortgages, equity loans, lines of credit or business loans, to implement a process to work with the mortgagors or loan holders to avoid foreclosure or default arising out financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, or by any local, state, or federal government response to COVID-19.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority will continue to lead coordination between the SBA and businesses in our State. NJEDA is currently in the process of scaling up local technical assistance programs to help New Jersey businesses apply for SBA assistance. To start, NJEDA has posted additional information about the SBA program on the State’s COVID-19 business portal: https://cv.business.nj.gov

For those businesses with an immediate financial need, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approved Gov. Phil Murphy’s request for a disaster designation, opening up access to the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program to New Jersey businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans offer up to $2 million in assistance for small businesses and private non-profits. These loans provide vital economic support to help overcome the loss of revenue caused by COVID-19.

Loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact. The interest rate is up to 3.75% for small businesses without credit available elsewhere. The interest rate for non-profits is up to 2.75%. Loan terms are up to a maximum of 30 years. SBA will determine an appropriate payment based on the financial condition of the borrower, which also will determine the loan term. Details regarding the SBA loan program can be found online at: https://faq.business.nj.gov/en/articles/3789809

More information on SBA disaster loans can also be found at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/

To further aid both homeowners and renters facing hardship, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is expanding its Foreclosure Mediation Assistance Program (FMAP) to include renter and pre-foreclosure counseling utilizing a network of participating housing counselors in each county. The counseling is available now and can be provided remotely. Counseling is free of charge.

Counselors will provide upfront assistance to help homeowners avoid potential foreclosure. At the same time, the counseling made available to renters will guide them on how to approach discussions with their landlords on dealing with their rent situation. For a list of housing counselors participating in FMAP, visit: https://njhousing.gov/foreclosure

At the Department of Community Affairs, rental assistance programs continue to operate and fulfill all core business functions, including paying rents to landlords and processing recertification's, income redeterminations, and other core functions. While DCA field offices are closed to the public to observe social distancing protocols, DCA encourages current participants to utilize the online portal at assistancecheck.com to submit documents, or to submit documents through the mail. Current program participants may email or call the field offices or the customer service line at 609-292-4080 or email: [email protected] to leave messages with questions. Messages are checked frequently and will be returned as promptly as possible.

The DCA has taken a number of actions to meet the ongoing needs of its clients and to curb evictions and homelessness during the state of emergency. It has Suspended terminations for non-essential reasons (those not involving violence and/or threats to others) in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) and State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP);

Extended the housing search period for all current voucher holders to the full 120 days allowed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for those without disabilities or who are not elderly for the housing search period. Voucher holders needing more than 120 days to identify housing may request extensions through the online portal, via phone call, or mail as needed;

Prepared to accept from its clients interim income re-certifications due to decreased income from the public and private responses to COVID-19. Income re-certifications may be submitted through DCA’s online portal and through mail. DCA is providing remote access, if necessary, to key employees to process requests as quickly as possible

Continued to offer language access services to clients who need them.

In an effort to help keep non-profit service providers viable and operating during this emergency, begun working to provide advances on existing contracts to providers addressing emergent needs.

DCA reminds residents who are in need of emergency housing assistance, please call 2-1-1 . For residents who do not have emergent needs, but would like to find out if they are eligible to apply for any of DCA’s assistance programs, they should visit DCA’s online anonymous screening tool: www.nj.gov/dca/dcaid. Residents may also visit (new webpage link) to learn more about our housing assistance programs.

Finally, in related efforts to help with the financial cost of COVID-19, the governor announced today the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) will offer assistance to those who need help making regular payments to NJCLASS student loans due to a diminished income.

Those directly impacted by COVID-19 can apply for NJCLASS loan relief for temporary disability or unemployment. Applications for these relief options are available at:
https://www.hesaa.org/Documents/Relief%20Options/Unemployment.pdf and https://www.hesaa.org/Documents/NJCLASSTempDisabilityForm.pdf

In addition, NJCLASS borrowers can apply for financial hardship relief. To assist individuals financially impacted by COVID-19 mitigation measures, who are not eligible to receive unemployment or temporary disability assistance, HESAA is requesting borrowers supplement their financial hardship application with a statement explaining how the impact of the COVID-19 virus response has caused their financial hardship. HESSA will review these applications with greater flexibility considering the impact of COVID-19.

The NJCLASS loan application for financial hardship relief is available at
https://www.hesaa.org/Documents/Relief%20Options/Financial%20hardship.pdf