To meet the governor's concerns, revised legislation has stiffer requirements to guard against fraud

State lawmakers are once again trying to bring relief to residents who are still required to make mortgage payments on properties that have been inhabitable since the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded large swathes of New Jersey three years ago.

Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) plans to introduce a new version of legislation that offers mortgage forbearance and foreclosure protections to residents impacted by Ida. It’s a reworking of a bill that was passed unanimously by both the Senate and the Assembly in June but was conditionally vetoed by Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this month.

The bill is expected to be officially introduced on Thursday. A draft of the bill was shared with NJ Spotlight News on Wednesday.

“It has been three years — three long years — since Hurricane Ida ravaged communities and homes. I believe this new proposal addresses the Governor’s concerns while more importantly, still providing much needed mortgage relief to impacted homeowners,” Singleton, who has sponsored each of the bill’s iterations, said in a statement. “We will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to help the victims of this storm.”

What’s in the bill

The new bill still offers Ida survivors a year of mortgage forbearance, or a stay in foreclosure proceedings, as long as they meet financial criteria. But new language now requires that people apply for the relief to the state Department of Community Affairs, which will review the application and decide whether to grant a “Certification of Eligibility for Forbearance.”

‘All the programs for Ida survivors are moving so slowly, we need this relief now before it’s too late.’ — Leanna Jones, an organizer with New Jersey Organizing Project and an Ida survivor

The DCA would have to create an online application program for people seeking relief, according to the new bill, with that program available within 90 days of the bill becoming law. Applicants would have 30 days to apply for the program once it opens.

The previous version of the bill only required people seeking relief to send written notice to their mortgage servicer in order to be granted forbearance, or written notice to a court in order to be granted a stay in foreclosure cases. Murphy  in his veto statement said he believed this exposed the program to potential fraud and he asked lawmakers for a new version of the legislation to have more stringent requirements.

Criteria for eligibility

Murphy also asked for the revised bill to specify that only people who are enrolled in existing state recovery programs — the Homeowner Assistance and Recovery Program and the Mitigation Assistance Program — would be eligible to apply for mortgage relief.

The new version of the bill stops short of limiting relief to people enrolled in those state programs. Instead, it would open eligibility to those who “occupied the residential property as their primary residence and received federal disaster assistance for needs related to damage sustained from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.”

The language in the new bill was praised by storm survivor advocates, who had criticized Murphy’s proposed requirements as being too restrictive.

“Unlike under the Governor’s conditional veto — this new bill will actually help me and the majority of our members,” Leanna Jones, an organizer with New Jersey Organizing Project and an Ida survivor, said in a statement. “I’m a working single mother of two and we’ve had no help from the state whatsoever in recovering from Hurricane Ida after 3 years — we need a hand to keep a roof over our heads. Some breathing room on my mortgage would allow me to get my head back above water. All the programs for Ida survivors are moving so slowly, we need this relief now before it’s too late.”

The governor’s office declined to comment on the new bill.

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