The Center for American Progress recently released a report, "Now We’re Talking: A Look at Current State-Based Foreclosure Mediation Programs and How to Bring Them to Scale," that surveys foreclosure mediation programs across the country and enumerates best practices. From their...
Housing Counseling
A homeowner facing foreclosure is often worried, stressed, and confused about the best course of action to take in order to save his or her home. Housing counselors serve as vital intermediaries between troubled homeowners and their mortgage servicers and work with homeowners to determine the best possible options for staying in their homes. About 45 percent of homeowners who complete counseling are able to stay in their homes, which is higher than those homeowners who do not complete counseling.
However, most housing counselors in the Chicago region do not have sufficient capacity to meet the recent influx of demand for their services. This problem is particularly acute in South and West Cook County, which have high rates of foreclosure but relatively few counseling agencies, and the collar counties. Clear lines of communication with servicers are crucial to finding the best option for the homeowner, and counselors still struggle with a lack of servicer responsiveness, transparency, and accountability. Borrowers often do not seek help until they are seriously delinquent on the mortgages or already in the foreclosure process, when it may be too late to keep the borrower in his or her home. The demand for legal counseling has also risen with that of foreclosure counseling, with low-income home owners in the Chicago area increasingly needing legal representation. The need is particularly acute in the southern and western suburbs of Chicago, where the numbers of foreclosures are risingand legal aid and court-based resources are scarce.
Counselors need more resources in order to adequately meet the need for their services, as well as ongoing training to keep up with the rapidly changing options for preventing foreclosure. Servicers need to improve internal recordkeeping and communication procedures and increase transparency into their decision-making process. Outreach must be appropriately targeted and motivate borrowers to seek help before their loans are seriously delinquent.
This page details efforts by Regional HOPI partners to increase capacity of counselors by advocating for federal and state resources and holding regular trainings on best practices, pioneer new ways of reaching borrowers, improve data collection on counseling outcomes, and improve networks among counselors. The Regional HOPI Action Plan identified Chicago region needs for housing counseling and legal aid and prioritized enhancing outreach, increasing access, and improving networks.
Since the inception of the Home Ownership Preservation Initiative in 2003, NHS and its partners have counseled or educated over 14,000 at-risk homeowners. In the past year alone, NHS provided one-on-one counseling services to over 4,000 families, and an additional 2,800 families attended a foreclosure prevention class.
These education and counseling...
The Circuit Court of Cook County announced on April 20, 2010 the launch of a court-based mediation program for foreclosure cases filed in Cook County in response to the increasingly rising foreclosure rate. Plaintiffs filing residential foreclosures after April 12, 2010 must notify homeowners in the summons about their option to pursue...
As the foreclosure crisis has escalated over the past year, families and communities throughout the Chicago region have been greatly impacted, and
housing counseling agencies have been inundated with foreclosure cases. Foreclosure filings in 2010 will likely remain at historic highs in part due to
continuing high unemployment rates and to the resetting of adjustable rate...
The Circuit Court of Cook County has created the Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program to assist homeowners who have received a foreclosure summons from the Court. Funded by the Cook County Board, the Program was established in response to the recent economic recession and...
A housing counseling agency that’s so swamped with demand for foreclosure prevention counseling that its executive director personally handles clients. Stalled real estate markets where buyers are waiting for prices to drop even further, and buyers who do want to buy now are struggling to obtain financing. Scam artists who take off with troubled homeowners’ last...
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This report by Woodstock Institute and Housing Action Illinois found that much of South Suburban Cook County, McHenry County, and parts of...
On April 5, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Homeowner Protection Act (SB-2513). The law gives Illinois homeowners who have fallen more than 30 days behind on their mortgage payments more time to work with their lender and/or servicer to develop a plan that will allow them to remain in their homes. Lenders and loan...
The Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program has been widely commended as a thoughtful tool for sustainable communities by ensuring homeowners hold a loan they can afford. While there have been some wrinkles in the detail of the program, the largest concern has been the challenges associated with ensuring those who would...
On August 29th, Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago, in partnership with the Oak Park Regional Housing Center (OPRHC), the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus, and...