This was a preventable crisis
How it started · 2020 to now
Every step traces to the record. The full sequence is written out below, scroll to read each turn. Two administrations made two different choices; the result was the same.
Dates to watch · the clock runs forward too
October 2026
Four years since the COVID partial claim was terminated without notice (October 2022), the origin event of this record. Families in active forbearance found out when they called to resume payments. Every step below traces back to this one.
November 3, 2026
The midterm elections. This record does not endorse anyone. It holds what every member said and did, on the record, with dates and sources, and it will hold what candidates answer when asked about retroactive relief for the families already displaced.
November 28, 2026
The day servicers are required to offer the partial claim (M26-4 Transmittal Sheet Change 14, 180 days from the June 1 policy). "Launched is not available" resolves on this date, one way or the other. This record will state which servicers were ready, and which were not.
① What happened · The gap, drawn to scale
Two administrations, two choices, and no working way to catch up for nearly four years
The red band is the stretch with no functioning exit: from the day the COVID partial claim was killed (Oct 2022) to the day the replacement launched but still wasn’t available (Jun 2026).
2020
CARES forbearance begins
May–Jul 2025
VASP killed; H.R. 1815 passes
Oct 2022
COVID exit killed
Jun–Nov 2026
Launched, not available
◀ You are here · Jul 2026
No working exit · Oct 2022 – Jun 2026.
Text description: a horizontal bar spanning 2020 to late 2026, split into two administration segments; a red band marks the roughly four-year window (October 2022 to June 2026) in which no VA program let forbearance families resume their original payment. The full sequence, with sources, is written out below.
Show the data table
| Date | Event | Working exit? |
|---|---|---|
| 2020–2021 | CARES forbearance; COVID partial claim is the exit | Yes |
| Oct 2022 | COVID partial claim terminated | No, gap begins |
| May–Dec 2024 | VASP live under a foreclosure moratorium | Briefly |
| May 2025 | VASP terminated on ~8 days’ notice | No |
| Jul 2025 | H.R. 1815 signed (permanent partial claim) | Not yet built |
| Jun–Nov 2026 | Partial Claim launched; servicer deadline Nov 28 | On paper only |
This is not a partisan story. It is a system failure that both parties now have the power to fix. See the legal analysis or where every office stands.
The strip below is a quick index, every entry is written out in full underneath it. ↓
2020 – 2021
CARES Act forbearance
The CARES Act created mortgage forbearance across all federally backed loans. VA borrowers were told to use it. The designed exit for VA loans was the COVID partial claim: missed payments moved to the end of the loan, families resume their original payment at their original rate.
Source: CARES Act forbearance ↗October 2022
Partial claim terminated
The VA terminated the COVID partial claim while families were still in forbearance, with no notice to borrowers. Families who called their servicers asking simply to resume their original payments were told no. The only option most were offered was a loan modification at current market rates, often tripling their interest rate and raising payments by hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.
NPR: the COVID partial-claim termination ↗May – Dec 2024
VASP launches
The VA built a replacement, the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program (VASP), launched May 31, 2024, protected by a foreclosure moratorium through December 31, 2024 while servicers implemented it.
Source: VASP program record ↗Jan – Apr 2025
Moratorium lapses
The moratorium lapsed. The fully implemented, unprotected safety net existed for four months.
May 1, 2025
VASP terminated
The VA terminated VASP with eight days notice to servicers (VA Circular 26-25-2, issued April 23, 2025). Families whose applications servicers had entered into the VA’s tracking system were grandfathered; families whose servicers never entered them, through no fault of their own, were sent to foreclosure. About 58,000 already-behind veterans had no path in, and only a servicer, never the veteran, could submit them. The full 75,000 / 17,000 / 58,000+ breakdown is on the What Is Happening page.
Source: VA Circular 26-25-2 ↗July 30, 2025
H.R. 1815 signed
Congress responded. The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act (H.R. 1815) passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law, creating a permanent partial claim authority and giving the Secretary emergency authority (Section 3(h)) to issue immediate guidance for loans already in default. That emergency authority has never been used.
H.R. 1815 on congress.gov ↗June 15, 2026
Partial Claim launches
Eleven months after enactment, the VA issued its final implementing policy and, on June 15, 2026, officially launched the Partial Claim Program. This is the official launch date — not the operational one. The Department describes foreclosure prevention as available; in practice it is not, because no servicer is required to offer it until the implementation deadline. The two reasons are explained on the What Is Happening page.
NCLC: pause until servicer-operational ↗Nov 28, 2026
Servicer deadline
The VA’s own deadline for servicers to implement the Partial Claim. Until a servicer stands the program up, foreclosure prevention is not operational and not available to that servicer’s borrowers. Families remain exposed to foreclosure and eviction in the gap between the official launch and this deadline. <a href="current-status.html#two-problems">Why launched is not available →</a>
