foreclosure help

By: Trisha Ocona Francis

While tens of thousands of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure every day and the unemployment rate still remains high, many middle-class American homeowners have asked the question, “Where is my bailout?” Well, our voices have not fallen on deaf ears.  Thousands of homeowners will finally have access to the miracle aid they have been seeking.

One-billion dollars has been awarded to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Protection Act for the Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program (EHLP). Through this program, eligible homeowners can receive assistance with both their delinquent and future mortgage payments for up to 24 consecutive months or up to $50,000. This should give the granted homeowners enough time and financial assistance to get back on their feet and avoid losing their homes. This homeowners’ loan will be granted at 0% interest and be forgivable, which means the balance will be automatically reduced by 20% every year for five years until the balance is clear.

Some of the requirements include: [consult with an EHLP Counselor for all EHLP eligibility requirements]

• Temporarily and involuntarily unemployed or underemployed due to the economy or a medical condition


• At least 90 days delinquent on mortgage, with a risk of foreclosure and have received a written notice from lender stating such


• Property must be owner’s primary residence


• Applicant must be the deed holder


• Property must be a single-family, multi-family up to four units, cooperative or condominium


• Have a good history or paying the mortgage payments before income reduction.

The enrollment period ends on Friday, July 22, 2011. To be sure that homeowners are eligible, HUD requests that you take the first step by submitting a Pre-Applicant Screening Worksheet to an EHLP counseling agency.  This worksheet, along with a listing of counseling agencies in your area, can be found on the EHLP website www.ehlp.org or by calling 1.855.346.3345.  HUD may establish a random lottery program to select applicants in the event that submissions are higher than anticipated. If selected, applicants will be required to meet with an EHLP counselor to submit supporting documents. Lottery selection does not guarantee EHLP assistance. Once ultimately approved and selected, a homeowner’s contribution amount is determined by HUD, which is 31% of your currency monthly income or $150 (whichever is more) and the EHLP will pay the remainder of your monthly mortgage payment.

EHLP is available to homeowners in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. It is also offered in Puerto Rico. If EHLP is unavailable in your state or you are not eligible to qualify, visit www.findaforeclosure counselor.org to contact a counselor to discuss your options  and determine if your state has received funds through the U.S Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund Program.

I know many of us will think of this as another attempt to help American homeowners who won’t do much at all. However, remember home is the place you and your family rest their heads at night—an investment that has consumed a lot of your time and energy. It can be taken away from you for reasons beyond your control. Think of the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed, and take another shot at saving what we call home.”

*PLEASE NOTE: Both the EHLP application process and the opportunity to receive assistance from an EHLP counseling agency is FREE. Anyone who requests a fee for this kind of assistance is being deceitful.

RELATED:

Obama offers mortgage relief to unemployed homeowners

For some time, I and other advocates have been calling for more help for struggling homeowners facing foreclosure. The good news is that California now has a program up and running that may actually do some good, called Keep Your Home California. Unfortunately, hardly anyone seems to know it exists.

And as far as anyone can tell, the well-intentioned folks running the program have done far too little to get the word out.

While foreclosures in San Francisco haven't gotten as much attention as some other places, people are suffering here, too. The southeastern part of the city has been particularly hard hit, especially Bayview-Hunter's Point. This is surely contributing to the ongoing decline of the city's African American population, which has been a source of concern for many years, as well as the exodus of families with school-age children, another ongoing worry.

Bolstered by $2 billion in federal money, Keep Your Home California offers a variety of assistance to families trying to keep their homes during hard times. These include mortgage payment subsidies for homeowners who have lost their jobs and fallen behind in their payments. There is also a program to reduce the principal of mortgages when borrowers are squeezed by a combination of economic hardship and a drastic drop in their home's value (although, unfortunately, not all banks are yet participating in principal reduction).

These are all good things, with the potential to help tens of thousands of Californians, maybe more, avoid foreclosure. That would be good not only for these hard-working families, but also for their communities and California's struggling economy.

Recently, Bloomberg reported that just 300 Californians have applied for the program. Diane Richardson, KYHC's program director, expressed surprise, telling Bloomberg, "I thought when we announced the program that everybody who had a mortgage would be calling to see if they qualify. They're not. I'm a little surprised at the work we have to do to get the phone to ring."

Officials must do more to get the word out.

While there has been intermittent news coverage, KYHC has done almost no advertising other than some free public service announcements, which only reach a limited audience. They also now have some ads on Google's search pages -- but the ones I've seen are buried in a mass of ads for commercial (and perhaps questionable) businesses claiming to offer foreclosure assistance. That is simply not enough.

Given the disproportionate impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities of color, an obvious (and comparatively inexpensive) approach would be to advertise in the ethnic media. California has scores of TV and radio stations, newspapers and online news sites aimed at African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans. It simply makes no sense not to reach out to their audiences, including ads in Spanish and widely-spoken Asian languages.

In many cases, people with limited ability to read English aren't Googling. They're looking for information from their neighbors, their church, and the media that speak to them in their own language.

I understand that officials at Keep Your Home California are reluctant to spend money on ads that could be used to help struggling homeowners, but the strategy clearly isn't working. $2 billion in foreclosure relief will accomplish nothing if the folks who need it don't know it's there.

A few bucks spent now to spread the word would get relief to people in desperate need while there's still time to save their homes.

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