Oak Park and River Foresters at risk of losing their homes could get a ray of hope Saturday. That's when local communities and housing organizations will provide a hands-on tutorial on how to tap into a federal program aimed at modifying troubled mortgages.
The event is scheduled for this Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Cicero Community Center, 2250 S. 49th Ave., in Cicero. The Village of Oak Park, along with other communities and organizations, is helping to promote it.
The Oak Park Regional Housing Center is co-sponsoring the event and will have its counselors on hand to help homeowners figure out whether they qualify for the loan modification program.
With home foreclosures taking their toll on Oak Park and its neighbors, the Housing Center hopes the event can educate people who have fallen behind on their mortgage, or are at risk to fall behind. Rob Breymaier, executive director of the Housing Center, expects between 500 and 1,000 people to show up Saturday.
"We think that this program can potentially help a lot of people," said Nosheen Hemani of Neighborhood Services of Chicago, which is partnering with other agencies to run the event.
This past May, the Obama administration's loan modification program went into effect. The federal government has made some $75 billion available for reworking troubled mortgages.
The program requires lenders to decrease mortgage payments to no more than 38 percent of a homeowner's gross monthly income, according to U.S. News & World Report. The government then pitches in to bring the monthly payment down further.
To be eligible for the program, you must have missed at least one payment, be an owner-occupant of the property, have a loan originating before 2009 and have the income to support monthly payments. Investment properties are not eligible, and the property can have no more than four units.
Breymaier says the requirement of being behind can be troubling.
"A lot of us in the advocacy community feel like that's one of the problems with the plan," he said. "But you can see the other side of it, too, where if they didn't have that as a criteria, then everybody and their brother would be applying for the modification, even if they weren't in trouble."
HUD-certified counselors will be on hand at the event to review people's documents and help them determine whether they're eligible for the program (see sidebar for what to bring). Similar events were held earlier this year in Chicago.
Martin Morales, home ownership and financial services counselor for the Housing Center, expects a madhouse at Saturday's event.
"We're swamped as it is; we see as many people as we can now," he said, speaking of the number of people who come in to the Housing Center for foreclosure prevention counseling. "I understand why they're doing this; it's just emotionally draining and exhausting. It's like running a marathon."
For people who don't qualify for the government's loan modification program, there are other options. Most banks also offer their own versions, according to Morales.
Oak Park, along with five other western suburbs, is helping to promote the event. The village recently formed the West Suburban Housing Collaborative with Berwyn, Forest Park, Maywood, Broadview and Bellwood. The communities have all had to battle their own problems with foreclosure (see chart), and are applying for their share of $170 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds through the federal government. The funds would be used to buy foreclosed homes in those communities and facilitate their rehabilitation and resale.
Village President David Pope thought of the idea for the collaborative, after a similar group was formed in the southern suburbs. The village board approved Oak Park's involvement in the group last month, as Trustee Colette Lueck and Housing Programs Manager Tammie Grossman will serve as the village's representatives in the collaborative.
The collaboration was announced at a press conference Aug. 3 in Maywood.
Pope says it was important to band together, rather than managing foreclosures in each community alone.
"These challenges don't recognize municipal borders," he said. "None of our communities is an island on to itself. We are affected by what happens next door, and if we work collaboratively, we can all benefit."
CONTACT: mstempniak@wjinc.com
