Workshops Targeting Help to Foreclosure Victims

There are many workshops being held across the country to educate and help foreclosure victims. Dough White has lost his job and is facing the grim prospect of losing his house on South Hill. He attended a workshop along with 100 other residents of Pierce County seeking help and advice on how to tackle the problem of unmanageable mortgage payments and impending foreclosure notices.

The workshop was set up at Tacoma Campus in The Evergreen State College. It instructed the participants on how to budget and balance their incomes with expenditure, access social services and understand the intricacies of the foreclosure process.

Most of the participants however mainly wanted to speak individually with a counselor or the representative of a lender. The homeowners had been asked to bring with them their papers relating to their loan, pay stubs and tax. It would enable productive discussion on financial alternatives with the lenders or with a counselor (state approved).

White came with the foreclosure notice that he had received three weeks previously. He had many questions to ask. At the time of receiving the notice he was not sure about how to react and respond. 57-year-old White said that he was hoping to be able to shift to a low cost re-mortgage on his house. This house has been his home for the last 30 years. He bemoaned that he never gone through such an experience hitherto.

Many people recounted the struggle they had been facing trying to keep up with mortgage payments since losing their jobs in the previous year. One of them was Kim West (53). She had lost her work last September and was now defaulting on her house in North End Tacoma. In the beginning she had tried to work out a deal with her lender but unless one fell behind in payments the lenders were not willing to talk. She remarked, “It’s kind of a Catch-22”.

The workshop was sponsored jointly by The City of Tacoma, the Department of Financial Institutions (State) and many other community groups.

Till 2nd March Tacoma had noted 1,404 foreclosed units. There are now 2,500 residential house owners of Tacoma over 30 days lagging behind in their mortgage payments according to Ric Teasley the divisional manager of Tacoma’s Housing. He said, “So many people are suffering through foreclosure. They don’t know where to turn. By coming here they can see what some of their options are. Their options may not be good, but at least they’ll have a chance to speak to somebody and find out.”