In 2022, the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund (PHFA) launched a program to help homeowners clear mortgage and utility debt. The program, dubbed the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund (PAHAF), offers individual grants of up to $50,000 to homeowners financially impacted by the pandemic. But of the more than 24,600 homeowners who applied for a grant, nearly 16,000 are still waiting. Initially, an outside vendor — Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) — was operating the program on behalf of PHFA. But after about a year the organization decided to take the program in-house, saying the move would enable it to “better leverage” its “deep knowledge of Pennsylvania’s housing market and its broad network of mortgage lenders, community partners, and housing counseling agencies on behalf of eligible applicants.” The move prompted the agency to stop taking new applications, and required every homeowner who had applied to re-register, a fact advocates say hasn’t been effectively communicated. And while grants are going out the door, it’s not happening quickly. Read more here.