Is There Any Help if I’m Behind on My Mortgage in Jacksonville?

Yes. The City of Jacksonville runs a program that can put up to $12,000 toward your mortgage right now, and the city’s own page says it’s first come, first served.

It’s called the Foreclosure Intervention Program. It’s for homeowners behind on their mortgage and trying to stop a foreclosure, and it covers mortgage counseling, direct mortgage assistance, loan modification and refinance counseling, and budget help.

How Much Money Is Available, and What Can It Be Used For?

Up to $12,000. That money can bring your mortgage current, help complete a modification, or refinance an existing adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed one. The city’s page says applicants can apply now.

Do I Have to Pay It Back?

Yes, eventually, and this is the part both official pages agree on word for word. It’s not a grant. The money comes as a deferred payment loan secured to the property for five years.

That’s a lien. It sits behind your mortgage, and it stays attached to the house, not just to you.

Am I Eligible? Two Government Pages Give Two Different Answers

The City of Jacksonville’s own page sets the income limit at 80 percent of area median income and publishes a table it labels 2026. A one person household tops out at $60,600. A four person household tops out at $86,950.

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, the organization the city names as its intake partner, publishes a different limit on its own page: 140 percent of area median income, on a table labeled 2020-2021. A one person household there tops out at $73,360. A four person household tops out at $104,720.

Those are two different eligibility screens for the same program, published in different years, not one number that moved over time. Nobody averages them, and a number that’s close to either one is closer to a phone call than to a self-screen off a web page.

The two pages don’t agree on where you have to live, either. The city’s page covers the City of Jacksonville, not including Baldwin, Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach. Legal Aid’s page says Duval County, which includes those four towns. They’re describing different ground.

What Counts as a Hardship?

You have to document one, and the city’s page gives its own list: loss of employment, a death in the family, a disability, a medical issue that reduced your income, or a recent divorce or separation that reduced your income. You also have to own the home and live in it as your primary residence.

That’s one household at four different bad moments, not four different kinds of people. Whoever lost a job in March is the same person three payments behind by June.

Who Do I Call?

The city’s page names one provider: Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, 126 West Adams Street, (904) 356-8371 extension 401 for intake, apply@jaxlegalaid.org. Legal Aid’s own page names three: itself, at a different extension and with a different staff contact, plus St. Johns Housing Partnership in St. Augustine and the Jacksonville Urban League.

Given how much these two pages disagree already, the second and third numbers are worth having on hand too.

What Happens to the Loan if I Sell Before Five Years?

Neither official page says. That’s the real question to ask at intake, before you sign anything, and it’s a question for the provider and a real estate attorney, not a web page.

A deferred payment loan secured to the property is a lien, and it comes due on sale. If you take this money and end up selling inside the five years, that lien has to get paid off or dealt with at closing, alongside whatever you already owe on the mortgage itself. Somebody using this money to catch up has a real chance of needing to sell before the five years are out.

What About the Federal Program I’ve Heard Of?

If you’re thinking of Florida’s Homeowner Assistance Fund, the federal money that helped a lot of distressed homeowners over the last four years, that one’s closed. The National Council of State Housing Agencies lists it as closed for Florida, and as of this morning only Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota and the Virgin Islands still show an open program.

The city program is a different pot of money, run by a different agency, with its own rules. It’s open right now.

I’m licensed in Jacksonville, Florida, and distressed property is most of what crosses my desk. Reach out if you want a second set of eyes on any of this before you call.

JimArmstrong904@gmail.com, or (904) 671-4161 if talking beats typing.

Jim Armstrong, REALTOR® · Momentum Realty · SFR® (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource) certified. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.

Momentum Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.