2,600 pack Cobo to hear about options at forum
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Connie Fields is one month behind on her mortgage payment, and she's scared.
Her husband has been out of work for a year and has been unable to find stable work. She works part time in between home-schooling two of their three children. Together, the couple save everything they can to pay their $841 mortgage, but in less than a week, they'll be two months behind if she can't come up with the payment.
That's why Fields was among more than 2,600 homeowners at risk of foreclosure who reached out for help at a daylong forum at Cobo Center.
"I don't want to lose my house," Fields said. "I don't want to live on the streets. I don't want to live with six people in a two-bedroom home with my mother."
Representatives from more than 50 mortgage companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies spoke with residents about refinancing their homes, slashing interest rates or using other strategies to catch up on their mortgages and make them more affordable.
The forum was held as six of the nation's largest lenders announced their participation in Project Lifeline, a national outreach that could grant homeowners a reprieve of up to 30 days in the foreclosure process if they are more than 90 days delinquent on their mortgage but have not yet addressed the problem.
Both efforts aimed to encourage homeowners to contact their mortgage company and provide updated financial information so that options can be examined, since half of all people who lose their homes to foreclosure never contact their lending institutions.
"We don't want to take someone's home," said Jerry Durham, first vice president for home preservation at Countrywide Financial, one of the six mortgage companies that signed on to the national plan and was represented at the Detroit forum.
"We're in the homeownership business, not the foreclosure business. We want to look and see what opportunities we can create to keep people in their homes.
"Help and hope are available," he added.
Michigan's sluggish economy has left thousands of people without jobs and the income to keep up with their mortgage payments, putting the state among the highest in the nation for home foreclosures.
Though people often are scared to contact their mortgage companies, Durham said there are numerous options for homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure.
Homeowners who qualify for the national program will be mailed letters encouraging them to contact their lenders to try to get a pause in the foreclosure process.
It was unclear how many letters will be sent to Michigan residents by the six lenders, which include Bank of America, Citigroup, Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.
The local forum, coordinated by Attorney General Mike Cox's office, was a repeat of a successful one in December that 4,300 people attended.
It tried to reach homeowners who were behind on their mortgages but not yet in the foreclosure process.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Connie Fields is one month behind on her mortgage payment, and she's scared.
Her husband has been out of work for a year and has been unable to find stable work. She works part time in between home-schooling two of their three children. Together, the couple save everything they can to pay their $841 mortgage, but in less than a week, they'll be two months behind if she can't come up with the payment.
That's why Fields was among more than 2,600 homeowners at risk of foreclosure who reached out for help at a daylong forum at Cobo Center.
"I don't want to lose my house," Fields said. "I don't want to live on the streets. I don't want to live with six people in a two-bedroom home with my mother."
Representatives from more than 50 mortgage companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies spoke with residents about refinancing their homes, slashing interest rates or using other strategies to catch up on their mortgages and make them more affordable.
The forum was held as six of the nation's largest lenders announced their participation in Project Lifeline, a national outreach that could grant homeowners a reprieve of up to 30 days in the foreclosure process if they are more than 90 days delinquent on their mortgage but have not yet addressed the problem.
Both efforts aimed to encourage homeowners to contact their mortgage company and provide updated financial information so that options can be examined, since half of all people who lose their homes to foreclosure never contact their lending institutions.
"We don't want to take someone's home," said Jerry Durham, first vice president for home preservation at Countrywide Financial, one of the six mortgage companies that signed on to the national plan and was represented at the Detroit forum.
"We're in the homeownership business, not the foreclosure business. We want to look and see what opportunities we can create to keep people in their homes.
"Help and hope are available," he added.
Michigan's sluggish economy has left thousands of people without jobs and the income to keep up with their mortgage payments, putting the state among the highest in the nation for home foreclosures.
Though people often are scared to contact their mortgage companies, Durham said there are numerous options for homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure.
Homeowners who qualify for the national program will be mailed letters encouraging them to contact their lenders to try to get a pause in the foreclosure process.
It was unclear how many letters will be sent to Michigan residents by the six lenders, which include Bank of America, Citigroup, Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.
The local forum, coordinated by Attorney General Mike Cox's office, was a repeat of a successful one in December that 4,300 people attended.
It tried to reach homeowners who were behind on their mortgages but not yet in the foreclosure process.
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