Realtor Wayne Stanley* helped plenty of buyers find houses while he saved up and waited for the opportunity to become a D.C. homeowner himself.  

He finally found a house in Ward 7 that checked off his wish list, secured the financing he needed, and closed on his new home in the summer of 2020. He made it his own with a fresh coat of paint and by pulling up old carpet to reveal original hardwood floors.

But his excitement about his new home turned to worry as the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic set in and began to take a serious toll on his livelihood. For-sale homes were scarce, buying was extremely competitive, and Mr. Stanley would spend weeks working with a client without closing a sale.

“I was a full-time real estate agent and my income just kind of dropped. It was like somebody snatched a rug from under me,” Mr. Stanley recalled. “I found myself in this whirlwind. It started stacking up on me, and next thing I know I’m a year behind.”

Due to the lasting effects of the pandemic, Mr. Stanley began to slip further and further behind on his mortgage payments. By early 2023, he owed nearly $20,000.  

He had picked up work driving for Uber and Instacart and searched for options that would allow him to keep his home without going further into debt. He came across D.C.’s Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), a program funded by federal COVID relief dollars that provides assistance to residents at risk of losing their housing due to pandemic-related financial hardship.  

At first, he thought the program was too good to be true and was expecting at any moment to find out he had wasted his time.

“I've experienced that before, like you run the mile and get to the end, and somebody forgot to put out the finish line,” he said. “But at that point it was like, ‘What do I have to lose?’”  

Mr. Stanley completed the HAF application in January 2023 with help from Housing Counseling Services. Just a few weeks later, his mortgage lender filed a foreclosure case against him.  

Help from Legal Aid

With the foreclosure case looming and Mr. Stanley’s HAF application pending, Housing Counseling Services referred him to Legal Aid DC for help. He connected with Legal Aid Staff Attorney Sudi Tasissa in March 2023, and over the next few months she helped him navigate the HAF application review process and proceedings in his foreclosure case.  

“He was a fairly new homeowner and was doing everything he could to save his home, but he just fell behind,” Sudi said. “He was a great candidate for HAF.”

Despite being a great fit for the program, Mr. Stanley’s application was rejected in April 2023, largely because his driver’s license still had an old address on it. Sudi quickly helped him prepare an appeal and gather supporting documents that showed he was living at the home he had bought. When HAF came back with more questions in June, Mr. Stanley and Sudi again pulled together more documents and a response to the program’s concerns with his residency.  

“That was one of the biggest hurdles and that contributed to the fact that I didn’t think we were going anywhere,” Mr. Stanley said. “Every time I gave something, they needed something else.”  

While his application was under review, Mr. Stanley’s overdue mortgage balance continued to grow, and he still worried that he would be turned down for assistance.

“HAF is a very helpful tool, but it takes a very long time to process and approve people,” Sudi said. “If the person is rejected, it just sets them up to be stuck with a very high balance.”

While they waited, Sudi also helped Mr. Stanley respond to the foreclosure lawsuit, represented him at his status hearings in court, and requested continuances so that the HAF process could resolve itself. She also helped him explore other possible paths forward, such as a loan modification or refinancing.  

Patience Paying Off

In August 2023, Mr. Stanley was finally approved for HAF. The program notified him that it would pay off the entirety of his overdue mortgage payments and provide three months of future payments.

“I could have passed out. It was just like a weight was lifted,” Mr. Stanley said.

Sudi attributed the good news to Mr. Stanley’s persistence and patience despite all the uncertainties he was facing.

“There are a lot of traps along the way that people could fall into. It could have easily gone in the opposite direction if Mr. Stanley didn't appeal on time, submit his application to his servicer, or update the court regularly about the status of his application,” she said.

Mr. Stanley said Sudi did for him what he has done for some of his own real estate clients: serving as that trusted and knowledgeable “person with the lantern” who can walk you through a daunting situation.  

“Working with Sudi was an absolute joy because she was very calm and reassuring, and she just guided me effortlessly through the process,” he said. “I’ve never not had a place to live. I've never had my housing be in jeopardy or in limbo, so just the simple fact that she was there during that time to help me is probably the main reason that I even finished.”  

After Mr. Stanley was approved, HAF began making payments on his behalf, and in October 2023 his mortgage lender dismissed the foreclosure case against him. Mr. Stanley is now back on track with his mortgage with a clean slate.

“It’s still a little challenging, but it’s far better than where it was before,” he said. “Now I'm more confident in being a homeowner.”

*A pseudonym has been used in this story to protect the client’s privacy 

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