The American dream seems to have gone awry. The doldrums in the housing market especially rising foreclosure properties has upset the economic recovery. Around 1.65 million properties are facing foreclosure and housing prices are touching record lows. Despite the sorry picture the good news is that there are several lifelines for struggling home owners trying to combat foreclosures for sale.
The biggest nationwide hotline is 888-995- HOPE which is operated by the Home Preservation Foundation funded by the Congress and offers free home counseling. The HOPE hotline has offered counseling to 4 million house owners from 2008 and aided 70% of home owners avoid foreclosure in a year. You need to call HOPE before you approach for loan modification as well as before a costly legal representation. Here a counselor will attend to your requirements of financial and legal help and bring in another party to the consultation if his or her services are required. The hotline is very efficient as there are 550 employees with the hotline placed at 8 centers through out the nation. This is vital to prevent home owners from falling prey to scammers out there in the market who are ready to cheat innocent victims.
Neighbourworks America is one other program funded by the Congress which provides technical and financial help to foreclosure prevention programs supported by the community like the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMC) that enjoys a 60% rate of success. The agency also manages a comprehensive data base of HUD approved, certified housing counselors in every state.
At the local level several community based initiatives are helping home owners struggling against foreclosure in a show of compassion and generosity. For instance The Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyer’s Project consists of a group of eighty Brooklyn lawyers helping poor Brooklyners. Even though volunteers received training in continuing legal education, each case takes up a vast portion of time. Foreclosures for instance, can involve anything from few months to few years and mostly require multiple appearances in court and continuing counseling.
In Philadelphia, a lifeline is the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program which is counted as the first victorious community based anti foreclosure program. Under the humane guidance of a judge named Annette Rizzo, this 2 year program makes it compulsory for lender and borrower to meet personally and discuss all options before the home is subject to foreclosure.
Each home owner is also provided with a counselor to guide them through visits to the court and help them through the foreclosure process: It has been highly rewarding with 75-80% of the cases in mediation been saved from foreclosure. Because of its success the program has been adopted in other areas of the country such as Boston, Miami, Louisville, New Jersey etc.
