AT THE HEIGHT OF THE HOUSING CRISIS, the federal government designated 18 states as the hardest hit by the housing downturn.

In response to the crisis, California was awarded nearly $2 billion in June 2010 to develop unique foreclosure prevention programs to assist eligible homeowners avoid foreclosure.

As of June 18, 2014, the program has assisted 41,334 California homeowners with $704,452,992.88 in benefits. Interestingly, the program funded the most benefits since the inception in the first quarter of 2014.

The program known as “Keep Your Home California” was designed to assist low and moderate income homeowners who are facing hardships due to unemployment, an unexpected change in household circumstance, such as death, illness or disability or who are subject to a recent or upcoming increase in their monthly mortgage payment or are at risk of default due to an economic hardship coupled with a severe decline in their homes value.

The program offers four possible benefits for distressed homeowners: Unemployment mortgage assistance, mortgage reinstatement assistance, principal reduction and transition Assistance.

Unemployment mortgage assistance pays homeowners up to $3,000 monthly for up to 12 months to help with mortgage payments while they’re receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

This assistance has helped the most homeowners, at 30,594, with total assistance of $391,126,308.12

The mortgage reinstatement assistance program has helped 6,257 homeowners with $82,935,236.33 in benefits. Homeowners receiving assistance through this program can receive up to $25,000 in a one time payment to cover past due, principal, interest, taxes and insurance as well as any past due homeowners association dues.

The principal reduction program has helped 3,865 distressed homeowners with $228,068,505.41 in direct assistance. With this program, eligible homeowners that owe more than 120 percent of their homes value can receive up to $100,000 in assistance to lower their mortgage balances.

There are now more than 52 mortgage loan servicers participating with CalHFA, the agency overseeing the qualification and implementation of Keep Your Home California funds.

The agency works with the homeowner and servicing lender to obtain affordable monthly payments for the distressed homeowner. In many cases, money from the program are matched by the servicing lender. The program had a 25 percent increase in servicer participation in the first quarter of this year.

The transition assistance program is a “when all else fails” assistance program that pays eligible homeowners a one time payment up to $5,000 when they participate in a successful short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.

This program provides funds to help with moving expenses, rent and security deposits. Only 628 homeowners have participated in this program.

Since 2010, Keep Your Home In California has helped more than 41,000 distressed California homeowners, paying out $700 million in benefits.

I think it is a bit ironic that the program seems to be gaining the most momentum in 2014 fully two years after the housing recovery in California got underway. After all, 41,000 homeowners is a big number, and certainly $700 million in paid benefits is huge, especially for the families that received this assistance.

But why has this program not received widespread publicity? How many more homeowners may have been helped that never even knew this help was available?

The stated objective at the launch in 2010, was to award $2 billion in benefits. Two years later, the amount of benefits paid is not even half this amount.

If you are a homeowner that is in trouble and need assistance, certainly you don’t have anything to lose by checking into Keep Your Home In California.

For more information or to learn if you may be eligible; www.keepyourhomecalifornia.org.

Guy Benjamin (CAL BRE License #01014834, NMLS 887909) writes a weekly column for The Herald, offering general information on real estate matters. As it is impossible to address all possibilities and variations, he will try to answer individual questions by readers who contact him at 707-246-0949 or gbenjamin@rpm-mtg.com.