‘Keep Your Home’ Event
The August 29 “Keep your Home” event was the third in a series sponsored by the Trust, part of its fight against the economic crisis through the Unity Challenge. Organized by the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago and the Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, the event helped homeowners apply on the spot for the federal Making Home Affordable refinancing program.
Homeowners looking for help from city counselors can wait for months because of the counselors’ caseload—over 200 on average. The three Chicago area workshops, by contrast, processed about 1,000 applications in a matter of days thanks to 60 real estate attorneys who volunteered their time.
A 51-year-old man from Evanston, who declined to give his name, stood in line to meet with attorneys. Laid off from a school administration job in June, he now worries about losing his home. “I’m hopeful I will get another job, but we all need some room to breathe, if only temporarily,” he said. “If you can reduce your mortgage payments then that will help you get through it until things pick up. This is one of the nicest things our government can do to help us keep our homes.”
Slowing the pace of foreclosures “makes a big difference in individual lives and in the lives of a community,” says Jane Bilger, executive director of IHDA. “It keeps families in the community, it keeps houses from being vacant, and events like this become a rallying point for the community. It brings people together.”
Learn more about the Trust’s foreclosure prevention efforts.