More than 1,200 Greater Cincinnati residents facing foreclosure made one phone call Wednesday that could help them stay in their homes.
They dialed 1-877-7BUZZUS and were connected with free professional housing counseling during the first of a three-day Foreclosure Prevention Phone-A-Thon.
It’s being sponsored by the Home Ownership Center of Greater Cincinnati in partnership with the Legal Aid Society, US Bank, WCPO-TV, CET and Cincinnati Bell.
The call center at CET’s studio in the West End will be staffed from 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. this Thursday and from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. this Friday.
Patrice Ligon, a US Bank employee, fielded call after call from people whose lives have been turned upside down by foreclosure.
"Some of them have lost their jobs. Others have gone through a divorce. Many have experienced both," she said between calls. "I don’t know how they do it."
Ligon was happy to be able to take their information and dispense plenty of hope that a loan modification can be worked out with their lender.
She was also letting them know of foreclosure prevention clinics the Home Ownership Center is holding at the end of this month.
Lakicia Roseman, Foreclosure Prevention Program Manager for the Home Ownership Center, said this year’s callers are different than those who called in during the two previous phone-a-thons.
Before, she says they were folks with adjustable rate mortgages or high-interest loans who were having trouble making their monthly payments.
"Now, what we’re seeing is people getting laid off or their job has cut their hours by half," she said. "They’re still very interested in maintaining their home ownership, but unable to keep up with the payment and need a way to work it out."
One of the major differences in this phone-a-thon is that many lenders will be sending representatives to town on Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 for pre-scheduled, face-to-face appointments with clients.
Home Ownership Center President/CEO Rick Williams says that could cut the loan modification time from between six and nine months to between 30 and 40 days.
Those companies include:
- Bank of America/Countryside
- Chase
- American Home Servicing
- Select Portfolio Servicing
- National City
- U.S. Bank
- Fifth Third Bank
- Third Federal Savings
- Citi Financial
- Washington Mutual
Callers to the phone-a-thon need to have the name of their mortgage company in front of them, their loan number and the type of loan.
Williams said most of the callers on Wednesday were very well prepared, making the job of the housing counselors much easier.
They’re using computers to input data and start case files – a big improvement over previous events where everything was done by hand.
