A state homebuyer assistance program announced it has thousands of dollars available for Mendocino County residents who lived in high fire-risk areas in 2017. 

The ReCoverCA Homebuyer Assistance Program, a state housing resource that helps low-income residents affected by disasters such as floods and wildfires, announced it has resources available for Mendocino County locals who lived in the Redwood Valley ZIP code 95470 under its initiative called the 2017 Fire Recovery funding.

The 2017 Fire Recovering Funding is also available for other Californians impacted by 2017 fires, including those who lived in Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Yuba counties. 

The homebuyer assistance program helps low-income residents buy homes in parts of the state that are considered safer or low-risk fire areas, which it assesses using Cal Fire’s fire hazard severity maps. The program provides down payment and closing cost assistance to eligible applicants. 

The 2017 Fire Recovery funding could help Mendocino locals affected by the 2017 Redwood Complex Fires, which destroyed hundreds of homes in Redwood and Potter valleys and burned over 36,000 acres.  

The program is administered by two state agencies. One is the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which manages housing and community programs across the state. The other is the Golden State Finance Authority, a state-run organization that works with lenders and local governments to provide funding for Californians to buy or refinance homes. 

According to Carolyn Sunseri, director of marketing at the Golden State Finance Authority, the fire recovery funding gives support to low-income applicants through zero-interest, no-payment loans. 

Sunseri explained that once an applicant uses the funds to purchase a home, 20% of the loan is forgiven for each year they live in the home. After five years, the loan is entirely forgiven. 

For applicants to be considered for funding, they must qualify as low-income households. The income requirements can be viewed at this link.  

Sunseri estimates that the average amount that a low-income person has received through the program has been about $300,000. But the total maximum amount an applicant can receive is $350,000.  

“The reason this is such a large chunk of money is because the program is intended to help low- to moderate-income people. Those people have a hard time affording housing prices,” she said. “We qualify the person, the house, the family, so they can actually buy at today’s prices. It’s a huge down payment to the actual cost of the property today.” 

Sunseri said anyone within this income bracket who lived in the 95470 ZIP code in 2017 for at least one day is eligible for the program. 

However, she said eligible applicants cannot currently own a property when applying for homebuyer funds. 

“Let’s say that someone had a house and suffered damage, to apply to this program, they would have had to sell that property. They can’t currently own a home to apply for this program,” she added.  

For more information or to review eligibility requirements, visit this link. 

This story originally appeared in The Mendocino Voice.