With foreclosures still a significant problem in Westchester, County Executive Robert P. Astorino has lent his support to the latest effort of a nonprofit agency to get homeowners the help they need to potentially get loans renegotiated in a timely fashion.
The effort is being spearheaded by Community Housing Innovations to counsel and assist homeowners who are facing foreclosure. CHI is one of several local agencies, certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that have been helping Westchester residents keep their homes.
CHI Thursday announced its "Fast Track Loan Modification" program to cut through bureaucracy and delays and help homeowners meet face to face with bankers capable of providing relief. The three-day event will be held June 21, 22 and 23. The plan is to connect 100 homeowners who have loans that are in default with Bank of America and Countrywide for private settlement meetings.
Homeowners must make appointments. Call 1-877-HUD COUNSELING (1-877-483-2686) or United Way's help line, 2-1-1. Callers will be given free counseling from one of the participating HUD Approved agencies.
"Everyone loses when a home is foreclosed on -- the homeowner, the bank, the neighborhood and the surrounding community," Astorino said. "The program announced today is part of our ongoing effort to help our residents one by one and in a timely fashion. Thank you to CHI and our HUD-certified agencies for what they do to help and thank you to Bank of America."
Joining the agency as participants are Westchester County's other three HUD-approved counseling agencies, including the Housing Action Council, Human Development Services of Westchester, and Westchester Residential Opportunities.
Alexander Roberts, executive director of CHI, said, "We thank the Bank of America for being the first to participate in this effort. We hope other banks will follow. The goal in the next year is to meet with 500 homeowners at four events and keep as many of them as possible in their homes."
Millions of homeowners who have received notices of default and foreclosure currently spend months and months trying to obtain modifications of their mortgages under various federal programs, including the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Over one year ago, Congress allocated $75 billion for this program to encourage banks to modify terms so homeowners could stay in their homes. However, to date only $242 million—just 3.2%--has actually been spent. And according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and HUD, banks have permanently modified fewer than 300,000 out of a total of 3.4 million eligible loans.
The banks are blamed for lost paper work, inconsistent advice, and failure to respond in a timely manner. However, the banks complain that many homeowners fail to provide required documentation.
The CHI Fast Track Loan Modification Program deals with all of those issues and is designed to achieve large numbers of trial and permanent loan modifications quickly and efficiently.
CHI asked if the Bank of America would send a team of loan specialists to meet with over 100 homeowners--one at a time--if the HUD-approved counseling agencies would insure that they had completed all of the required documentation.
The bank said it would. With the help of an anonymous foundation, the Fast Track Loan Modification event was born and for this first pilot will serve homeowners in Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland Counties with Bank of America mortgages.
Homeowners facing foreclosure are asked to contact one of the HUD-approved Housing Counseling Agencies named above immediately and to submit their paperwork. These agencies will assist the homeowner in applying for a trial or permanent modification free of charge. CHI will forward the documentation to a special section at Bank of America that will work on modifying loan terms on an expedited basis.
The Bank of America will send loan specialists to the Fast Track Loan Modification event in White Plains, who will write trial or permanent modifications, either on the spot or within a few days. The bankers hope to meet with 120 homeowners individually for up to an hour to complete the processing.
Once the loan modifications are written, a second part of the program includes free follow-up training in financial literacy and budget counseling for one year to insure success.
Jerry Durham, Bank of America's chief of Homeownership Preservation & Advocacy said,
"We support this initiative and trust that it helps meet our goal of preventing foreclosure and allowing homeowners to stay in their homes."
In order to maintain privacy, the meetings will be private, by appointment only. However, the results of the meetings will be announced to insure transparency and determine if the new pilot is effective.