Housing advocates ‘very worried’ veterans could face foreclosure as VA mortgage rescue program phases out
CNN
Affordable housing advocates and congressional Democrats are warning that more foreclosures may occur as the Department of Veterans Affairs phases out a mortgage rescue program for financially strapped veterans this week.
Affordable housing advocates and congressional Democrats are warning that more foreclosures may occur as the Department of Veterans Affairs phases out a mortgage rescue program for financially strapped veterans this week. Beginning Thursday, the VA will no longer accept enrollees to the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program, or VASP, a program established last year during the Biden administration that helps veterans who are in trouble with their mortgages. “We are very worried,” Justin Wiseman, vice president for residential policy at the Mortgage Bankers Association, a nonpartisan group representing the interests of mortgage companies, told CNN. “We don’t like to foreclose on anyone, and especially not on veterans,” Wiseman said. “We’re very worried that without a replacement program for VASP, there will be more foreclosures.” The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy organization that also advocates for fair housing, is sounding a similar alarm, noting in a recent letter to to Congress that tens of thousands of veterans are at risk. CRL wrote that once VASP phases out, if there is not a replacement program or another option, “VA borrowers will face unnecessary foreclosures.” “To be clear, this is not a theoretical exercise,” CRL continued. “As of February 2025, there were about 81,000 active-duty servicemembers or Veterans who had already missed 3 or more payments on their VA mortgages and were in default. Without VASP or immediate access to alternative policy tools that provide relief … many of these homeowners will be forced to sell their homes and move or face foreclosure.”
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