THE VETERANS FORECLOSURE CRISIS · PRINCIPAL FINDING
VA launched a new foreclosure-prevention program in June. That does not mean every servicer has implemented it.
Implementation update Sep 15, 2026Servicer deadline Nov 28, 2026Harm counts: spring 2026
VA says it was ready to accept Partial Claim trial-payment-plan events on June 15, 2026. VFC tracks what is actually operational, what remains unknown, who was warned, what decisions followed, and where veterans can get help.
Two problems remain. The VA’s new Partial Claim still excludes families already pushed beyond its eligibility barriers, while access for families who may qualify now depends on whether their own mortgage servicer has implemented the new VA waterfall. Servicers have until November 28, 2026. The program exists; access is still uneven.
THE DISTINCTION THE WHOLE RECORD TURNS ON
LAUNCHED ≠ IMPLEMENTED
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June 15
VA ready to accept Partial Claim trial-payment-plan events.
S007 · VA launch release
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Your servicer
Implementation varies during rollout. Access depends on the servicer having implemented both the new Loss Mitigation Waterfall and the Partial Claim.
S025 · VA servicer FAQs
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November 28
The deadline VA’s borrower guidance gives for servicers to add Partial Claims to their systems.
VA issued its final policy on June 1 and launched on June 15. The 180-day implementation period is measured from the June 1 final policy, not from the June 15 launch. These dates establish the implementation window. They do not establish the current status of every servicer.
CURRENT STATUS · WHAT IS TRUE TODAY
The program exists. Access still depends on implementation at the borrower’s servicer.
- Program status
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Live at VA · rolling out at servicers
VA began accepting Partial Claim trial-plan events June 15, 2026. Servicers have until Nov. 28, 2026 to implement the new waterfall.
- Servicer access
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Varies by servicer
Pennymac publicly announced implementation August 6. VFC has not verified a complete public cross-servicer implementation list. Ask your servicer whether its VA Loss Mitigation Waterfall and Partial Claim are fully implemented, and request the answer in writing.
S293 · the servicer’s own public position, not VFC verification of any loan
- Cross-servicer list
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Not located by VFC
VFC has not located a comprehensive public VA list showing implementation status for every mortgage servicer. That is a search finding, not proof that no such record exists.
Which servicers have implemented it?
VFC’s servicer tracker has its columns and its five states in place. No rows are published yet. Rows will be added only from verified evidence, one servicer at a time, each carrying its own source, last-checked date and limitation.
An empty tracker is the honest current state of the record. It is not a claim that no servicer has implemented.
WHERE IS THE DATA?
Where is the servicer-by-servicer implementation list?
A veteran cannot work out their own servicer’s operational status from VA’s June launch announcement alone. This is how VFC records a missing public record: what was searched, what was found, and why it matters.
The question
Does VA publish a complete servicer-by-servicer implementation list?
What the search returned
VFC did not locate a comprehensive public VA servicer-by-servicer Partial Claim implementation list in the sources below.
- Status
- searched, not located
- What VFC checked
- VA's Partial Claim servicer FAQ; borrower foreclosure guidance; June 15 launch release; VALERI Technology Knowledge Center; Servicer Newsflashes; VALERI guides and templates; Partial Claim training resources; and servicing circulars.
- Last checked
- September 18, 2026
- What would resolve it
- A VA-published cross-servicer status record, or verified implementation evidence for individual servicers.
- Limitation
- This is a search finding, not proof that no such record exists.
What is still missing publicly
A current harm-and-rollout picture
VFC has not located a current VA public series showing foreclosures, displacement, and servicer-by-servicer Partial Claim implementation together. The principal published harm counts on this site remain from spring 2026 and carry their original dates.
HOW WE GOT HERE · THE WHOLE STORY
How VA ended one program before the replacement was operational
Everyone got the same COVID help. Only veterans got trapped.
During COVID, the federal government told homeowners it was safe to pause their mortgage payments. Every other federal loan program kept a way to resume the normal payment afterward, only VA borrowers lost theirs, twice: one administration ended the original exit in October 2022, and the next cancelled its replacement in May 2025 with eight days’ notice, while tens of thousands of eligible families were still in line. Congress passed a bipartisan fix in July 2025, and it took the VA eleven months to open the program. The status bar above is where that stands today.
How the rule changed. Four documents in eleven months. The protection was narrower at the end than at the start.
Read it document by document, with what each change means for a family →
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Mar 2020
CARES Act forbearance begins
Families in COVID-19 forbearance were told, in guidance issued to their servicers, that paused payments would be repaid over time and that a lump sum would not be required.
S049
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Oct 28, 2022
The COVID-19 partial claim expires by regulation
Families already enrolled were not carried into any successor option. There was no grandfathering provision and no notice to borrowers that the terms had changed.
38 C.F.R. § 36.4809(c)
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May 2024
VASP, the replacement, launches
Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP). Only the mortgage company (the loan servicer) could apply for a family.
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Apr 23, 2025
VA announces the VASP wind-down
VBA Circular 26-25-2, issued to servicers.
Circular 26-25-02
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May 2025
VASP cancelled with eight days’ notice
75,000 veteran borrowers were three or more payments behind; about 17,000 had been accepted. Tens of thousands of eligible families were still in line.
S124 · NCLC and CRL, May 1, 2025
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Jul 30, 2025
Congress creates the partial claim
Bipartisan, signed into law: H.R. 1815, Public Law 119-31.
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Nov 12, 2025
A funding bill narrows the foreclosure protection that came with it
It had stood for 105 days.
Pub. L. 119-37
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Feb to Mar, 2026
VA drafts the rules and takes public comment
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Jun 1, 2026
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Jun 15, 2026
VA begins accepting Partial Claim trial-payment-plan events
Live at VA is not the same as available at your mortgage company.
live at VA
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Nov 28, 2026
Servicer implementation deadline
The deadline VA’s borrower guidance gives for servicers to add Partial Claims to their systems, at the end of the 180-day period that began with the June 1 final policy. Until then, verify implementation with your own servicer.
verify now
SCALE OF HARM · THE COUNTS AND THEIR DATES
How many veteran families have been affected?
The principal harm counts on this site remain from spring 2026. VFC has not located a current VA public series showing foreclosures and displacement as they occur.
Lost their homes since VASP ended
15,000+
At the May 20, 2026 Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said recent data indicated that more than 15,000 veterans had lost their homes since VASP ended.
Behind or in foreclosure, April 2026
~90,000
VA borrowers reported by NPR as behind on their mortgages or in the foreclosure process, based on ICE Mortgage Technology data.
No public series located
The missing linked measure
?
How many of the displaced are now homeless. VFC has located no public count, and no VA plan to rehouse them.
When VASP was cancelled, most eligible families never had a path in
Behind at cancellation
75,000
veteran borrowers were three or more payments behind when VASP was cancelled.
Accepted before shutoff
~17,000
had been accepted into the program before it was shut off.
No path in
58,000+
had no path in, and only a servicer, never the veteran, could submit them.
$72,000–$74,000
what each foreclosure costs the government. $0, what the tool that prevents it costs up front.
You may have heard: “helping them would cost taxpayers more” →
VFC method
NO UNDUPLICATED TOTAL ESTABLISHED. The available counts describe different populations, dates and stages of mortgage distress. VFC has not established how much those groups overlap, so they should not be added into a single total of families affected.
Method last run 2026-09-18 Full methods
Congressional testimony & VA figures, spring 2026; no newer count located. Every number carries a source, a date, a content label, and its limitation, definitions & methods →
WHO THE NEW PROGRAM DOES NOT SOLVE
PROJECT ANALYSIS
One program does not reach every affected family
This project's analysis finds three groups of families, each harmed by a different government action, and no single program that reaches all three.
COHORT A
The forbearance families
- Who
- Families who did exactly what the government said and paused payments under COVID forbearance.
- What changed
- The same-rate exit disappeared when the COVID partial claim ended in October 2022. Pushed toward balloon payments or unaffordable modifications.
- The fix they need
- A restored same-rate modification or partial claim, applied to families already forced into higher-rate deals.
COHORT B · THE VASP GAP
Foreclosed in the coverage gap
- Who
- Families who fell into default after the VA killed VASP (May 2025) and before the Partial Claim launched (June 2026), a year with nothing operational to help.
- Unresolved
- Many are already foreclosed on or displaced.
- The fix they need
- The unused Section 3(h) authority, applied to pre-enactment defaults, plus counting and rehousing the displaced.
COHORT C
Eligible on paper, barred in practice
- Who
- Families who may qualify under the new rules but are blocked by VA-added eligibility criteria, or are still waiting for their servicer to complete implementation during the rollout window.
- The fix they need
- Remove the administrative barriers, and pause foreclosures and evictions until the program is operational at every servicer.
THEY WERE WARNED · ACCOUNTABILITY
They were warned before key decisions took effect
Not a claim about what anyone knew. A record of what they were told, spanning two administrations. Three selected entries.
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Feb 15, 2024
The partial claim gap and foreclosure exposure are raised directly, three months before VASP launches.
Notice: Witnesses at hearing told House VA Committee at HVAC printed hearing record.
DOCUMENTED FACT Source S056
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Mar 11, 2025
Asked what happens without the rescue program, Elizabeth Balce answers: the short answer is foreclosure. Period.
Notice: Mortgage Bankers Association (Elizabeth Balce) told House VA Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity at Subcommittee hearing testimony.
DOCUMENTED FACT
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Mar 26, 2026
The draft policy would push roughly 30,000 veterans into average payment increases of about 150 dollars per month.
Notice: National Consumer Law Center (Alys Cohen) told House VA Committee at HVAC hearing.
DOCUMENTED FACT Source
LATEST
What changed most recently
Living documentImplementation update September 15, 2026Newest first
The full dated record on News & Record · chronology on the timeline · where every office stands on the tracker
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Sep 1, 2026
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Aug 13, 2026
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Aug 11, 2026
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Aug 6, 2026
VERIFY THE EVIDENCE
See the documents, data, and methods behind this record
VFC publishes the evidence registers behind the site so readers can trace claims, dates, definitions, limitations, and corrections. Every fact on this site traces to a citation.
Direct routes to the record
- Sources and claims
- Every claim, its source, and the six registers
- Timeline
- The Record, every dated entry
- Rebuttals
- What you may have heard, answered
- News
- News & Record
- Glossary
- Terms, defined
- Primary authority
- 38 U.S.C. 3737(h), in the statute itself · Policy & Fiscal
- Corrections
- Corrections policy and log
WHERE THE COHORT IS
Where families are reporting harm
Documented cohort families by state. A count only, never named, unless a family consents. A floor, not a ceiling: it reflects only families who have reached this project.
TAKE ACTION · PARTICIPATE · GET HELP
Where to start
Pick the one that fits you. Everything else on this site is one click behind it.
This is happening to my family
Behind, in foreclosure, or already out of the house. Help by stage, the First 72 Hours checklist, and how to build your case for the months after.
I am a reporter
Press contact, documents, deep links, and how we handle sources. Every fact on this site traces to a citation.
I work for a congressional office, a committee or a veterans organization
Five print-ready briefs, one for each committee desk, plus the record behind every figure in them.
I want to help
What moves this and who moves it: the offices to contact, the scripts, and how to help keep the record.
WHAT MUST HAPPEN
THE PROJECT'S ASKS
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Pause & count
Pause VA foreclosures and evictions until the new relief is actually working at every servicer, and publish the monthly counts. The VA has used a pause before; members of Congress and the National Consumer Law Center have already asked for it again.
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Remove the handbook barriers
The barriers excluding already-harmed families were not written by Congress into H.R. 1815, the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act. VA added them in handbook text and can revise them the same way.
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Count the displaced
Publish the monthly VALERI aggregates, new defaults, foreclosure starts, and VA-acquired REO, and build a remediation pathway for families already foreclosed, past sale, or displaced during the implementation gap. The policy is forward-only and leaves that cohort with no remedy. The mandated GAO review arrives after the harm, not during it.
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Use the authority already given
Congress expanded the Secretary’s authority in 38 U.S.C. §3737(h) in November 2025. It permits interim guidance and gap-period relief before regulations issue, and it sits unused.
The June 2026 M26-4 handbook policy is final, but implementation remains uneven across servicers until November 28, 2026. The problem is implementation, not statute. No new law is required for interim guidance or a remediation pathway. See all six asks →
Also on this site: what happened, every claim, its source, and the six registers, the data files, build your case, who keeps this, and how to reach us.
METHODS, SOURCES AND PROVENANCE
How this page is maintained, and how to correct it
If you are a veteran in crisis, call the Veterans Crisis Line: 988, then press 1.