Across the country, millions of dollars are being spent on foreclosure prevention efforts and with some degree of success. Across the country, counseling agencies are able to help most struggling homeowners, provided the owners come for counseling. Unfortunately, as many as 50% of all owners who lose their homes to foreclosures never contact their lender or a housing counseling agency. That's shocking.

This week, the Cook County Board passed an ordinance to fund $3 million in new foreclosure outreach and prevention efforts. More than money, the county's approach adopts several key strategies used with success in other areas, including mandatory mediation for any borrower who asks for it. This would be required prior to a lender being able to proceed with foreclosure. The plan also beefs up low cost legal aid, which has been a major hurdle for groups like ours, and free housing counseling for owners from qualified nonprofits like Lakeside. Lastly, the ordinance will fund direct outreach to borrowers by trained volunteers working in hard hit neighborhoods. This means door-to-door and face-to-face contact with borrowers to encourage them to get in touch with their lenders and a housing counseling agency because in fact, there is much which can be done to prevent foreclosures. (We were pleased to support this effort and to see the vital role played by attorney and activist Nick Brunick, a true hero in the affordable housing community and an all around nice guy. We'd say that even if he wasn't a Lakeside CDC board member, which he happens to be. Way to go, Nick!).

Lakeside has provided foreclosure counseling services this past year and so far, of all the people we've worked with, only 1 has actually lost her home to foreclosure. The rest have been able to negotiate modifications, improve their money management, or initiate negotiations with lenders and servicers that are ongoing. The challenge we face, as do many smaller organizations, is how to let borrowers know our services are available. In our area, the difficulty of getting borrowers buried in debt and beseiged by debt settlement agencies and their creditors alike is to compounded by the fact so many owners live in condo buildings that are tough to get into for flyering. And direct mail is also a challenge, given how much other mail competes for borrowers' attention.

This month, Lakeside will begin planning a door-to-door outreach strategy to help alert homeowners in our service area we provide free, confidential, and bilingual housing counseling services. Our goal is to reach at least 100 borrowers each month, starting in January. You do not have to wait. We are looking for 20 volunteers who will commit to downloading our foreclosure prevention flyer and printing enough copies to share with their neighbors. It could be on your block, in your building, during your morning commute, or after services at your church, temple, or mosque. We want you to let people know help is available. Please, pass it on.

To download our flyer, click here.

To learn about other ways you can help us fight foreclosures, contact Lakeside.

If you would like to make a donation to support our volunteer outreach efforts, click here and make a donation by credit card or send a donation to Lakeside at 1652 W. Wallen Ave, Chicago IL 60626.

 

If you or someone you know is struggling to pay your mortgage, contact Patricia Sweat at Lakeside CDC for free counseling today. Patricia has helped over 150 individual homeowners this year keep their homes. Patricia can be reached at (773) 381-5253.