“Trump’s VA killed a home loan program. Vets are now losing their homes because of it” Excerpt From “Trump’s VA killed a home loan program. Vets are
NPR reports:
“Foreclosures on VA loans are at their highest level in a decade. VA has a fix but it is months away and could still leave vets worse off than most other homeowners.”
“Chris Arnold, Quil Lawrence · April 02, 2026 05:00 AM EDT”
“More than 10,000 veterans lost their homes to foreclosure since May of last year, when the Trump administration shut down a key safety net in the VA home loan program, according to the latest industry data. That is the highest pace of foreclosures for VA loans in a decade.
Another 90,000 vets are heading toward foreclosure. This comes after a years-long debacle inside the Department of Veterans Affairs has whiplashed thousands of vets between various enacted and canceled programs and left many of them on the brink of losing their homes — often through no fault of their own.
A loan backed by the VA is considered one of the most valuable benefits for military service members and has helped millions achieve homeownership. But for nearly a year now, vets have had worse protections and options than most other homeowners if they fall behind.
“Ledford’s husband is a Marine who was hurt in Afghanistan. He has PTSD and a brain injury. It took a long time to get through the VA’s red tape to approve his disability pay, and in the meantime, his condition got so bad he couldn’t work.
“At first, we didn't know whether it was a stroke or a seizure or what was going on,” Ledford remembers.
She had to stop working to care for her husband, and then they couldn’t afford rent. The couple ended up living out of a trailer hitched to their truck, with their young son, for six months while they waited for his disability paperwork to go through.
But then they got back on their feet. They even bought a house in January 2021 with a loan backed by the VA.
That’s just what the VA loan is supposed to be — a life-changing benefit to give veterans a leg up into the middle class and homeownership.
The house is right across the street from the neighborhood’s public school. “So our son started at the elementary school,” which, Ledford said, has been a “huge relief.”
“Since my husband hasn't been able to drive, you know, I have to manage everything,” she said.
As both she and her husband’s stress levels fell, his symptoms improved. And their son has had a stable home. “He's been able to live over half his life in our house now, and he doesn't remember all the bad years 'cause he was too little,” Ledford said.
“But just a year after they bought their house, a cascade of actions by the Department of Veterans Affairs entangled them, and thousands of others, in a years-long ordeal where they weren’t permitted to pay their mortgage. That’s now pushed them into foreclosure and the brink of eviction.
“We didn't know that the foreclosure sale went through until somebody knocked on the front door,” Ledford said.
Bait and switched by the VA:
For the Ledfords, this all started back in 2022 after they had to replace their furnace and were hit with other costly home repairs. Their lender, Freedom Mortgage, told them they could get help from what was called a mortgage forbearance. The COVID-era program would let them pause making payments.
“They told us it was for a year, and they would check in after six months,” Ledford said. “And then we would just pick up our payments at the end of the year … It felt like such a relief for us.”
She says Freedom told her the skipped payments would then be moved to the back of her loan term, to be paid later when they refinanced or sold the house.
In the wake of the pandemic, millions of Americans with other types of federally backed mortgages took advantage of such forbearance programs.
But then, in October of 2022, the Biden administration shut down a key part of the VA’s forbearance program that had enabled the skipped payments to be deferred.
As a result, tens of thousands of veterans like the Ledfords were told they suddenly needed to pay that year’s worth of payments in a lump sum.”
“Even when the Trump administration’s new loan program is up and running, it won’t help vets like Thomas, Benfatto, or Henry who were already forced to accept loans with higher interest rates. It won’t lower their payments back down to where they were before. In theory, some vets could refinance if mortgage rates drop sharply, but rates have been rising again.
The VA’s new fix:
The Trump administration’s new program, when it’s up and running, will work by allowing vets to take their missed payments and move them to the back of their loan term. So they’ll get to keep their current mortgage and interest rate. That should be a big help to vets who have a relatively low rate.
There’s a qualifier in the current draft. The way it’s written, the VA is telling mortgage companies that if a new, modified loan at a higher interest rate only raises a veteran's monthly payment by up to 15%, they must place vets into that more costly loan.
So a veteran with a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment could still be pushed into a modified loan that raises their payment by up to $300 a month. And they wouldn’t be given the option of moving their missed payments to the back of their loan and keeping their original, lower-cost mortgage.
The mortgage industry is telling the VA that that doesn’t make any sense.
“As drafted, Veterans will continue to have worse options than similarly situated non-Veterans,” Pete Mills, an executive with the Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote in a letter to the VA.
“Payment reduction is the most important driver of modification performance, and the current policy will lead to higher redefault rates,” Mills said. The association, along with housing groups, is recommending that the VA put a loan with a higher payment at the very bottom of its so-called waterfall of options for homeowners who are behind on payments.”
“The Ledfords, who receive $3,971 a month in Ledford’s husband's disability pay, say they could have afforded mortgage payments under the VASP program. And they could have afforded their original mortgage with its $1,447 monthly payment, had VA’s new program been up and running and allowed them to move their missed payments to the back of their loan term. But because VA killed VASP before standing up the new program, they were stranded without either option.
“VA worked tirelessly with the Ledford family to help keep them in their home. However, they were nearly four years behind on their mortgage payment, and the decision to foreclose on their mortgage was made by Freedom Mortgage,” Kasperowicz said. Freedom Mortgage declined repeated requests for an interview or statement.
That VA statement ignores the fact that the Ledfords, like many other vets, were not allowed to resume making mortgage payments after a series of the VA’s own missteps trapped them in a bureaucratic quagmire. They were told to just keep applying for help through a loss mitigation process that dragged on for years and in the end, never offered them any actual assistance.
The VA did not respond to questions about whether it could do anything to save the Ledfords from losing their home, since the VA now owns it following the foreclosure sale. The only offer from VA so far was $3,500 to vacate the house in what’s known as “cash for keys.”
The Ledfords have been told that to get even that much help, they need to vacate their home by April 3.
In its written statement, the VA said it stands ready to assist the Ledfords with health care services as needed.”
Excerpt From
“Trump’s VA killed a home loan program. Vets are now losing their homes because of it”
Chris Arnold, Quil Lawrence
NPR
https://apple.news/AhpCFwAUSRcy-9nE1KUxPZg
This material may be protected by copyright.
“Foreclosures on VA loans are at their highest level in a decade. VA has a fix but it is months away and could still leave vets worse off than most other homeowners.”
“Chris Arnold, Quil Lawrence · April 02, 2026 05:00 AM EDT”
“More than 10,000 veterans lost their homes to foreclosure since May of last year, when the Trump administration shut down a key safety net in the VA home loan program, according to the latest industry data. That is the highest pace of foreclosures for VA loans in a decade.
Another 90,000 vets are heading toward foreclosure. This comes after a years-long debacle inside the Department of Veterans Affairs has whiplashed thousands of vets between various enacted and canceled programs and left many of them on the brink of losing their homes — often through no fault of their own.
A loan backed by the VA is considered one of the most valuable benefits for military service members and has helped millions achieve homeownership. But for nearly a year now, vets have had worse protections and options than most other homeowners if they fall behind.
“Ledford’s husband is a Marine who was hurt in Afghanistan. He has PTSD and a brain injury. It took a long time to get through the VA’s red tape to approve his disability pay, and in the meantime, his condition got so bad he couldn’t work.
“At first, we didn't know whether it was a stroke or a seizure or what was going on,” Ledford remembers.
She had to stop working to care for her husband, and then they couldn’t afford rent. The couple ended up living out of a trailer hitched to their truck, with their young son, for six months while they waited for his disability paperwork to go through.
But then they got back on their feet. They even bought a house in January 2021 with a loan backed by the VA.
That’s just what the VA loan is supposed to be — a life-changing benefit to give veterans a leg up into the middle class and homeownership.
The house is right across the street from the neighborhood’s public school. “So our son started at the elementary school,” which, Ledford said, has been a “huge relief.”
“Since my husband hasn't been able to drive, you know, I have to manage everything,” she said.
As both she and her husband’s stress levels fell, his symptoms improved. And their son has had a stable home. “He's been able to live over half his life in our house now, and he doesn't remember all the bad years 'cause he was too little,” Ledford said.
“But just a year after they bought their house, a cascade of actions by the Department of Veterans Affairs entangled them, and thousands of others, in a years-long ordeal where they weren’t permitted to pay their mortgage. That’s now pushed them into foreclosure and the brink of eviction.
“We didn't know that the foreclosure sale went through until somebody knocked on the front door,” Ledford said.
Bait and switched by the VA:
For the Ledfords, this all started back in 2022 after they had to replace their furnace and were hit with other costly home repairs. Their lender, Freedom Mortgage, told them they could get help from what was called a mortgage forbearance. The COVID-era program would let them pause making payments.
“They told us it was for a year, and they would check in after six months,” Ledford said. “And then we would just pick up our payments at the end of the year … It felt like such a relief for us.”
She says Freedom told her the skipped payments would then be moved to the back of her loan term, to be paid later when they refinanced or sold the house.
In the wake of the pandemic, millions of Americans with other types of federally backed mortgages took advantage of such forbearance programs.
But then, in October of 2022, the Biden administration shut down a key part of the VA’s forbearance program that had enabled the skipped payments to be deferred.
As a result, tens of thousands of veterans like the Ledfords were told they suddenly needed to pay that year’s worth of payments in a lump sum.”
“Even when the Trump administration’s new loan program is up and running, it won’t help vets like Thomas, Benfatto, or Henry who were already forced to accept loans with higher interest rates. It won’t lower their payments back down to where they were before. In theory, some vets could refinance if mortgage rates drop sharply, but rates have been rising again.
The VA’s new fix:
The Trump administration’s new program, when it’s up and running, will work by allowing vets to take their missed payments and move them to the back of their loan term. So they’ll get to keep their current mortgage and interest rate. That should be a big help to vets who have a relatively low rate.
There’s a qualifier in the current draft. The way it’s written, the VA is telling mortgage companies that if a new, modified loan at a higher interest rate only raises a veteran's monthly payment by up to 15%, they must place vets into that more costly loan.
So a veteran with a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment could still be pushed into a modified loan that raises their payment by up to $300 a month. And they wouldn’t be given the option of moving their missed payments to the back of their loan and keeping their original, lower-cost mortgage.
The mortgage industry is telling the VA that that doesn’t make any sense.
“As drafted, Veterans will continue to have worse options than similarly situated non-Veterans,” Pete Mills, an executive with the Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote in a letter to the VA.
“Payment reduction is the most important driver of modification performance, and the current policy will lead to higher redefault rates,” Mills said. The association, along with housing groups, is recommending that the VA put a loan with a higher payment at the very bottom of its so-called waterfall of options for homeowners who are behind on payments.”
“The Ledfords, who receive $3,971 a month in Ledford’s husband's disability pay, say they could have afforded mortgage payments under the VASP program. And they could have afforded their original mortgage with its $1,447 monthly payment, had VA’s new program been up and running and allowed them to move their missed payments to the back of their loan term. But because VA killed VASP before standing up the new program, they were stranded without either option.
“VA worked tirelessly with the Ledford family to help keep them in their home. However, they were nearly four years behind on their mortgage payment, and the decision to foreclose on their mortgage was made by Freedom Mortgage,” Kasperowicz said. Freedom Mortgage declined repeated requests for an interview or statement.
That VA statement ignores the fact that the Ledfords, like many other vets, were not allowed to resume making mortgage payments after a series of the VA’s own missteps trapped them in a bureaucratic quagmire. They were told to just keep applying for help through a loss mitigation process that dragged on for years and in the end, never offered them any actual assistance.
The VA did not respond to questions about whether it could do anything to save the Ledfords from losing their home, since the VA now owns it following the foreclosure sale. The only offer from VA so far was $3,500 to vacate the house in what’s known as “cash for keys.”
The Ledfords have been told that to get even that much help, they need to vacate their home by April 3.
In its written statement, the VA said it stands ready to assist the Ledfords with health care services as needed.”
Excerpt From
“Trump’s VA killed a home loan program. Vets are now losing their homes because of it”
Chris Arnold, Quil Lawrence
NPR
https://apple.news/AhpCFwAUSRcy-9nE1KUxPZg
This material may be protected by copyright.
