$4.6 M Raised to Support Mortgage Counselors During Foreclosure Crisis
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Mortgage counseling agencies will receive $4.6 million to build their capacity over the next two years, and help the hundreds of thousands of California homeowners facing interest rate resets and the threat of foreclosure. The California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), eight financial institutions and two foundations today announce the California Home Ownership Preservation Initiative, which will increase the number of mortgage counselors working to keep Californians in their homes.
The California Reinvestment Coalition partnered with Merrill Lynch, HSBC-North America, Wachovia Bank, Comerica Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Countrywide Financial, Citi, Bank of America, San Francisco Foundation and California Community Foundation to create the $4.6 million Initiative. The partners released today a request for proposals from California nonprofit organizations serving troubled home loan borrowers, encouraging them to apply for funds that will increase their capacity to assist their clients. The Initiative will provide funds statewide responding to the level of community need, and could create 50 or more new staff positions at California mortgage counseling agencies.
“Mortgage counselors are critical to keeping Californians in their homes,” said Alan Fisher, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, the organization that raised the funds for the Initiative. “By increasing the number of mortgage counselors, the California Home Ownership Preservation Initiative fulfills one of two major elements in solving much of the foreclosure crisis. The other requires the mortgage industry to play a more active role by modifying loans and working with troubled borrowers.”
It is predicted that half a million California mortgage borrowers will struggle to make payments on their home loans in the next two years. There are positive solutions that could keep many of these borrowers in their homes. Mortgage counselors help borrowers find solutions to their home loan problems. For Initiative partners, this highlights the critical role mortgage counselors play in slowing the tide of foreclosures that is sweeping California.
Counseling agencies report being overwhelmed by the 200 to 500 percent increase in homeowners walking through their doors in 2007. As the foreclosure crisis worsens, these agencies will see even more borrowers. The Initiative partners are continuing to raise funds to help them meet the needs of these borrowers.
For more information about the California Home Ownership Preservation Initiative partners contact:
Bill Halldin, Merrill Lynch, (916) 781-0657
Kate Durham, HSBC-North America, (847) 291-2101
Bill Becker, Comerica Bank, (310) 297-2263
J. Reymundo Ocanas, Wachovia Corporation, (510) 446-3325
Tim Hanlon, Wells Fargo Bank, (760) 864-1023
Mary Jane Seebach, Countrywide Financial, (818) 225-3361
Natalie Abatemarco, Citi, (212) 559-6393
Al Arguello, Bank of America, (213) 621-4825
Alvertha Penny, California Community Foundation, (213) 413-4130
James Head, San Francisco Foundation, (415) 733-8514
For more information about this release and to talk with mortgage counselors, contact Alan Fisher at 415-864-3980, afisher (at) calreinvest (dot) org, 474 Valencia Street, Suite 230, San Francisco, California 94103 or visit www.calreinvest.org.
The California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) is a statewide coalition of more than 250 nonprofit organizations and public agencies that has worked to increase access to credit for affordable housing, community economic development, and consumer services in low-income communities and communities of color since 1986. CRC has comprehensive community reinvestment agreements with major California banks and savings & loans.
SOURCE California Reinvestment Coalition
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