In February 2010 the Obama administration established the Hardest Hit Fund. The fund set aside $1.5 billion in funding for innovative local initiatives to help struggling homeowners in the states affected the most by the housing bubble  bust.

Last month, five state Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) were selected to share the first wave of the Hardest Hit Fund investment: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada. Each approved state experienced a decline of 20 percent or higher in home prices.

Today Michigan’s governor, Jennifer Granholm, announced that Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s (MSHDA) is ready to begin distribution of the funds to more than 17,000 Michigan  homeowners as early as next week.  Michigan is the first state to implement the plan.

Michigan’s Helping Hardest Hit program intends to help homeowners:

• who receive unemployment benefits
• who’ve fallen behind in payments because of a temporary layoff or medical reasons
• who were previously unemployed and are now working at lower wages

Those who would like apply are encouraged to contact their mortgage servicers. In Michigan, you can learn more about the program by going to the MSHDA website.

To find out more information on the Hardest Hit Fund programs in the other four approved states, check out their respective websites:

Arizona – expects to begin the program in September 2010.

California – expects to begin the program in November 2010.

Florida – expects to begin a pilot program in Lee County in August 2010.

Nevada – expects to begin the program in mid-August 2010.