The FHA Back to Work program was created by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to extend mortgage options to consumers with economic hardships or financial events.
For traditional FHA loans and conventional loans, lenders required consumers to wait 36 months after an economic event like a foreclosure or bankruptcy before applying for a mortgage. The FHA Back to Work program reduced this period to just 24 months for those who qualified and could prove the extenuating circumstances that led to their financial hardship.