Columbus Mortgage Crisis

Mark your calendars! WOSU@COSI will once again welcome guests to the annual COSI Community Day on Sunday, December 6. WOSU has a variety of fun events planned for children and adults alike. Guests can visit with popular PBS character Curious George in the WOSU@COSI space during Community Day plus there will be activities to pique interests and channel energies—including storytelling, face painting, and coloring pictures from all the popular PBS Kids shows.

In addition to all the fun activities for kids, WOSU@COSI’s Battelle Studio will be transformed into Information Central to facilitate connections between visitors and community partners who are currently offering free services such as HUD-certified housing counselors, the Legal Aid Society, and Experience Columbus. The Information Central area will focus on the WOSU initiative—Facing the Mortgage Crisis— and will offer information and resources for those WOSU@COSI guest who would like to learn more about the community resources available to help those facing foreclosure.

We hope to see you at WOSU@COSI for Community Day on December 6!

– Scott Gowans

The Central Ohio mortgage crisis shows little signs of slowing down. Whatever the causes, whether it be predatory lending, poor choices by home buyers, or the rising unemployment rate, the mortgage crisis affects individual homeowners, their families, their neighborhoods and the economy as a whole.

In this audio special, WOSU’s Mike Thompson and his guests look back at the roots of the crisis, help explain the complicated foreclosure process and examine the effectiveness of efforts to stabilize homeownership and the marketplace.

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW BELOW (54:00)

A letter from a site user. I have withheld the name upon reuqest.

Dear Scott Gowans,

I ran into your article on http://www.columbusmortgagecrisis.org/ while searching for any info to help out my x-in laws. They are the only parents I have and I’ve exhausted myself trying to come up with some help for them. My father was an electrician for 40 years on and off at Elite Electric which was located in Johnstown, but relocated to Columbus near 161 and Cleveland Ave, making $40,000 a year. My mother works as a state tested nursing assistant for Friendship Village of Columbus for over 13 years now making just shy of $20,000 a year.

They have taken in my daughter, accepted her as their granddaughter and have helped me by placing her in their home while we work with her with her counseling.

Sadly, my father was laid off in a split second. He has been unemployed for a few months now, and has fallen behind on his mortgage. After contacting the “save the dream” program and a few other help links I had found for them, they are still at a dead end, and my father is struggling to become employed again to save their home. The home has been passed down in his family for some generations now. It is so saddening to me to be so helpless after they have stepped in and have been my parents and grandparents to my children since January 2003.

It’s frightening how fast and unexpectedly something like this can happen. He has so many trades, and has over 40 years of electrician service under his belt. He was the president of the Mid Ohio Ford Club since I have met him. He just lit up when he could put on car shows, and run the Mid Ohio Ford Club Spring Swap at the Columbus fairgrounds every August and raise so much money for the Earth Angels Foundation, and now he is fearing the knock on the door with someone on the other end telling him that they have to get their belongings out and leave.

I pray for everyone in this same situation, and I hope everyday that the economy will get better soon so that families like my ex-in laws will have a place to lay their heads at night, and be able to afford food and everyday costs of living these days.

Thanks for reading and God Bless.
Sincerely,

Mortgage Crisis? You’re not alone.

Information about foreclosures and mortgage crises is free. Don’t pay for help. Start by calling 2-1-1.

FIRSTLINK is just one of the partners working with WOSU to help Central Ohioans cope with the mortgage crisis.

WOSU presents a panel discussion with financial experts on the community impact of the current mortgage crisis and early prevention. WOSU Public Affairs Director Mike Thompson moderates. Panelists include Denise Gastesi, Foreclosure Intervention Specialist, Franklin County Treasurer’s Office; Jung Kim, Community Research Partners; and Linda Cook, Statewide Legal Services Foreclosure Project Manager, Ohio Poverty Law Center.

Running time: 56 minutes.

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I’ve been kept busy posting statistics from the Columbus Research Partners, stories from our WOSU newsroom, facts provided by our many partners, and advice from local experts about foreclosures and mortgages.

Now I’m asking for your help.

A mortgage crisis is an intensely personal matter, but, as we’ve shown, it spills over into family dynamics and effects both the community and entire city. Coping with a crisis isn’t easy, but through shared knowledge you can help others, and maybe yourself.

If you have a story to tell about a foreclosure or mortgage crisis, whether it’s yours or someone else’s, I’d like to hear it. No story is too big or too small. If you’re not sure whether you want it made public, we can discuss how best to present it - by not naming names or addresses.

Star by letting me know if you’re interested in contributing, and we’ll go from there. I’d love to hear from you.

Email me

- Scott Gowans

Pace of Mortgage Loan Modifications Under Obama Plan Painstakingly Slow
by Sam Hendren, WOSU Reporter
(2009-08-24)

LISTEN TO THIS STORY BELOW:

The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent from June to July in part because the foreclosure crisis continues to outpace government efforts to limit the damage. There seems to be an abundance of help at every turn, but are banks modifying loans as fast as they possibly can?

Banks in the U.S. are working to resolve the overwhelming mortgage foreclosure crisis. But the scope of the problem is staggering. Faith Schwartz works for Hope Now, an agency that helps people avoid foreclosure. Schwartz says millions of Americans are in trouble with their mortgages.

“Just to give you a sense of the numbers, 3.1 million loans are past due over 60 days,” Schwartz says. “That’s a lot of loans.”

The Obama administration has weighed in with its own plan for assistance. While it might not have the alliteration of Cash for Clunkers, the administration’s Making Home Affordable plan is designed to help homeowners in arrears. But Cindy Flaherty of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency says the pace of loan modifications is painstakingly slow.

“Right now I would say that it is much slower than anybody had hoped,” Flaherty says. “We are still working with borrowers who called us when the program first started and they have yet to get a modification back from the servicer or lender that they’re working with. In other cases we are starting to see some results and it does depend on a number of factors.”

Flaherty says it might be as simple as a bank lacking enough employees to slog through piles of paperwork. But she wonders aloud if banks are purposefully slowing down the process.

“I would like to give the servicers the benefit of the doubt and say that they are trying,” Flaherty says. “And I don’t think that’s true across the board though we have too many examples of counselors being treated rudely; of packages being repeatedly mislaid; ‘will you fax it again.’ You have to wonder if there isn’t another motive in those cases to slow down the process.”

Ohio Bankers League lobbyist Mike Adelman says that he believes banks are doing the best that they can.

“To the best of my knowledge banks and thrifts are working hard every day with customers to keep them in their homes, certainly if you have a willing and able borrower the lender will want to try and work out a deal so that the property’s being maintained, so the taxes are being paid,” Adelman says. “It’s a win-win situation for everybody involved.”

The U.S. Treasury Department said earlier this month that more than 400,000 modification offers have been extended and that more than 230,000 trial modifications have already begun. At that pace, according to Treasury, it will take the next three years to help three million to four million clients.

J.P. Morgan Chase, with large-scale operations in Columbus, is among the largest loan servicers in the country. The company says since 2007, it’s helped prevent some 600,000 foreclosures. Chase says it’s already modified 117,000 loans under the Obama plan.

At the Ohio Housing Finance Agency Cindy Flaherty says the key for borrowers is perseverance. She says that as more banks add staff and as updated loan rules are written into banking guidelines, more work outs and loan modifications will occur.

© Copyright 2009, WOSU

Approximately two out of three middle class families are at high risk of sustaining or losing their economic security. Too often, parents are being forced to make difficult decisions that affect their children’s well-being. In response to these rec…ent changes in family economics, Sesame Street has produced a primetime special, “Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times.” This hour-long special, hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo, aims to help families with children, ages two to eight, experiencing difficult economic circumstances by offering strategies and tips that can lead to positive outcomes for their children’s physical and emotional well-being during this tough economic climate.

The special will air on WOSU on September 9, 2009 at 8PM.

Here’s a sampler: