Minnesota Mortgage Relief Program: HomeHelpMN Has Closed, Here Is Where Help Is Now

What happened to HomeHelpMN

HomeHelpMN was Minnesota’s share of the Homeowner Assistance Fund, a federal pandemic program created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Minnesota Housing, the state’s housing finance agency, ran it from 2022 into 2023. It helped owners who had fallen behind on their mortgage, property taxes, manufactured home lot rent, association dues, and other housing costs because of the pandemic. Payments went straight to the lender, county, or association, not to the homeowner.

In a June 23, 2023 notice, Minnesota Housing said all applications had to be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 7, 2023. By then nearly all of the program’s $109 million had been committed, and new applicants were placed on a waitlist and reviewed by available funds and risk of losing the home. Eligible households could get up to $50,000.

Washington has closed its end of the program too. The U.S. Treasury HAF page says the period of performance ended September 30, 2026, and states may no longer use HAF money to help homeowners. So if a website or caller offers to “get you into” HomeHelpMN or a new Minnesota mortgage relief program, treat it as a red flag.

Free help for Minnesota homeowners today

The grant is gone, but the help that actually saves most homes was never just the grant. It is a workout from the loan servicer, backed by a counselor who knows how to package the request. Here is who does what.

Minnesota Housing itself no longer runs a mortgage payment grant. Its role today is mostly behind the scenes, funding foreclosure prevention counseling across the state. If other bills are pushing the mortgage out of reach, our Minnesota hardship relief guide and our Minnesota utility relief programs page list help that can free up money for the house payment.

Working with a Homeownership Center advisor

The Minnesota Homeownership Center is a nonprofit that connects homeowners with a statewide network of foreclosure prevention advisors. Its services are free. You can call 651-659-9336 or 866-462-6466, send a message online, or use its Find an Advisor search, which you can filter by language, including Hmong, Somali, Spanish, Oromo, Amharic, and Swahili. The center says it has helped more than 38,000 Minnesota households stop foreclosure since 2008.

State law also builds counseling into the process. Before recording a notice of pendency, a lender foreclosing on a Minnesota home must tell you that free counseling is available and that it will pass your name and contact details to an approved counseling agency (Minn. Stat. 580.021). So you may get a call from an agency even before you reach out. That call is real help, not a sales pitch, but confirm the agency name with the Homeownership Center if you are unsure.

What to bring to the first meeting

• Your latest mortgage statement and any letters from the servicer or a law firm.
• Two recent pay stubs or benefit letters for everyone who contributes to the household.
• Your most recent tax return and two months of bank statements.
• A short written explanation of what caused the hardship and whether it is over.

The advisor uses these to build a budget and decide which workout to ask for. For a longer general checklist, see our guide to gathering documents.

Minnesota rules that slow a foreclosure down

Federal servicing rules in 12 CFR 1024.41 set the national floor. In most cases a servicer cannot start a foreclosure until a loan is more than 120 days past due, and a complete application sent in time must be decided before a sale. Minnesota adds its own layer.

Minn. Stat. 582.043 is the state’s “dual tracking” law. In short:

• If you send a loss mitigation application before the loan is referred to a foreclosure attorney, the servicer generally cannot make that referral while the application is pending.
• If you apply after referral but before a sale date is set, the servicer generally cannot seek a foreclosure order or hold the sale until it has decided, any appeal period has passed, or you turn down an offer.
• If you get a written offer, you usually have at least 14 days to accept it.

The law counts forbearance, repayment plans, modifications, principal reductions, and capitalizing arrears as loss mitigation. Keep proof of the date your application was complete. Upload confirmations, fax receipts, and certified mail slips all help if the timing is ever questioned.

Options by loan type: FHA, VA, USDA, and others

VA-guaranteed loans. The VA’s guidance for borrowers who are behind includes repayment plans, forbearance, modifications, and the new VA partial claim, which pays your missed payments to bring the loan current. To get the partial claim, you must first make three straight on-time trial payments. VA says servicers have until November 28, 2026, to add it to their systems, so ask your servicer whether it is live yet. If the servicer stalls, a VA loan technician at 877-827-3702 can step in on your behalf.

FHA loans. HUD sets a waterfall of home retention options that FHA servicers must check, often including a partial claim that turns the arrears into an interest-free second lien. HUD revised these rules in 2025, so ask what you qualify for today rather than relying on old letters.

USDA loans. Many homes in Greater Minnesota carry USDA Rural Development loans. Guaranteed loans are worked out by your private servicer. Direct loans are serviced by USDA, which can discuss payment assistance and moratorium options.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Minnesota Housing loans. If either national company owns your loan, payment deferral and Flex Modification are common tools. If your first mortgage came through a Minnesota Housing program, your servicer still handles the workout, and any Minnesota Housing down payment loan may have its own rules on deferral, so ask the servicer about both liens.

Foreclosure by advertisement, step by step

Minnesota allows two kinds of foreclosure. Foreclosure by action (Minn. Stat. chapter 581) goes through district court and is less common. Most home loans are foreclosed by advertisement under Minn. Stat. chapter 580, which uses notices and a sheriff’s sale instead of a lawsuit. Here is the usual order.

1. Missed payments and counseling notice. The servicer sends default letters and the counseling notice described above.
2. Notice of pendency. The foreclosing party records a notice of pendency with the county before the first newspaper notice runs.
3. Published notice. Under Minn. Stat. 580.03, the sale must be advertised for six weeks, and the notice must be personally served on the occupants at least four weeks before the sale.
4. Help notice in color. With the foreclosure notice, you must receive a separate notice printed in 14-point bold type on colored paper (Minn. Stat. 580.041). It lists the amount needed to catch up, the sale date, and the Homeownership Center’s phone numbers.
5. Reinstatement window. Until the sale, Minn. Stat. 580.30 lets you stop the foreclosure by paying the missed amount, interest, publication and service costs, and limited attorney fees. You do not have to pay off the whole loan.
6. Sheriff’s sale. The county sheriff auctions the home. The lender often bids. The buyer gets a sheriff’s certificate, not immediate ownership.

Read the colored notice closely. The reinstatement figure on it is often far less than people expect, and it is the number to share with your advisor and any family members who might help.

Postponing the sheriff’s sale

Minnesota gives homestead owners an unusual choice. Under Minn. Stat. 580.07, subdivision 2, if the home is classified as your homestead and has one to four units, you can push the sale back five months (or 11 months where the redemption period is 12 months). To do it, you sign a sworn affidavit in the form set by the statute, record it with the county, and deliver copies to the sheriff and the foreclosing attorney at least 15 days before the scheduled sale.

There is a trade-off. Recording that affidavit cuts your redemption period after the sale to five weeks. In practice you trade a longer wait after the sale for more time before it. That can make sense if you expect to sell, refinance, or finish a modification within those five months, but it is a decision to make with an advisor or attorney, not alone.

The redemption period after the sale

Under Minn. Stat. 580.23, you usually have six months after the sheriff’s sale to redeem. To redeem, you pay the sale price plus interest at the mortgage rate (or 6 percent a year if no rate is listed) and certain allowed costs. The colored notice tells you that you may keep living in the home during this period.

The sheriff’s certificate states the actual length of your period, so check it rather than assuming. If you do not redeem or sell before the end, you must move out, and the buyer can file an eviction case if you stay. Many owners use the redemption months to sell the home themselves and keep any equity, which is usually better than letting the period run out.

Property tax refunds and deferral

Lowering the property tax part of your housing cost is one of the few kinds of money Minnesota still pays homeowners every year. According to the 2025 Form M1PR instructions (updated June 5, 2026):

• Homestead Credit Refund: total household income must be under $142,490, you must have owned and lived in the home on January 2, 2026, and the property taxes cannot be delinquent. The refund comes from a table based on income and taxes.
• 2026 increase: the Legislature added a 14.88 percent boost to the 2025 refund, figured on a new line 17a.
• Special refund: no income limit, up to $1,000, if your net homestead tax rose more than 12 percent and at least $100 from 2025 to 2026 for reasons other than improvements.
• Deadlines: the 2025 return was due August 17, 2026, but you can still file until August 16, 2027.

The same booklet describes the Senior Citizens’ Property Tax Deferral Program. If you are 65 or older (a spouse can be 62), household income is $96,000 or less, you have lived in the home five years, and mortgages and liens are no more than 75 percent of market value, the state can lend you the tax above 3 percent of your income. The loan becomes a lien repaid when the home is sold. The booklet sets November 1 as the yearly application deadline (for 2027 taxes, that date has just passed), so call the department at 651-556-4803 to plan for the next cycle. Our senior property tax relief guide compares programs like this one across states.

Legal aid in Minnesota

Because foreclosure by advertisement skips the courtroom, mistakes in notices or timing can go unnoticed unless someone checks. A lawyer can look at whether the lender followed chapter 580 and the dual tracking law, and whether a court action is worth filing. LawHelpMN, run by Minnesota’s legal aid programs, lets you find the free legal aid office for your county and read self-help material. Legal aid has income limits, so if you are over them, ask about volunteer lawyer programs or reduced-fee referrals.

Minnesota mortgage relief program scams to avoid

Once a foreclosure notice is published, your name and address become public, and the solicitations start. Minnesota’s foreclosure reconveyance law limits what these “foreclosure consultants” can do. Minn. Stat. 325N.04 bars them from collecting any fee until every promised service is fully performed. Warning signs:

• A request for money up front to “apply” for a Minnesota mortgage relief program or to negotiate with your lender.
• Pressure to sign over the deed and rent the home back, with a promise you can buy it later.
• Instructions to stop paying your servicer and send payments to them instead.
• Claims of a new state or federal grant. HomeHelpMN is closed and HAF has ended.

The CFPB’s scam guide has more examples. If something feels off, call the Homeownership Center before you sign anything. For general debt pressure, our Minnesota debt relief programs guide explains which services are licensed in the state.

Related guides

• Minnesota rent relief
• Minnesota assistance programs
• Mortgage relief programs
• Foreclosure assistance for veterans

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Program rules, deadlines, and foreclosure procedures can change, so confirm details with the agency, your servicer, or a lawyer. National Relief Program is an independent website and is not affiliated with Minnesota Housing, the Minnesota Homeownership Center, or any government agency.