Advocates

The 15 employees of the Southwest Organizing Project, a nonprofit community group on Chicago's Southwest Side, are housed in a small, shared office space when they aren't out in the community.

They are out a lot in the neighborhoods, ones particularly hard-hit by the housing crisis.

The way they've approached housing issues, as well as other concerns in Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, Gage Park, West Elsdon and Ashburn just garnered them international recognition from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Southwest Organizing Project, known locally as SWOP, was selected as one of 13 groups in five countries last week to receive the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-mre-0303-podmolik-homefront-20130301,0,6202833.column

Mortgage assistance program Keep Your Home California now has more than 100 mortgage servicers participating in the program, offering ways for distressed homeowners to stay in their homes.

By adding more servicers, the federally funded program can help more homeowners in the state struggling to pay their mortgages because of financial hardships, according to a news release from Keep Your Home California.

Homeowners can be eligible for help through four programs, though not all of the 101 mortgage servicers participate in all four.

The programs include help in case of job loss, help catching up on past payments due to hardship, principal reduction and transition assistance, in cases where the homeowner needs help relocating when they can’t keep their home.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/01/15/keep-your-home-cal...

Given this landscape, why did banks determine that it was acceptable to shareholder interests to disregard due diligence and other legal standards? Consider the risks the banks heaped on their shareholders (especially our pensions and state investments) by neglecting their legal obligations during the inflation of the most recent housing bubble.

The same arrogance, ignorance and greed that inflated the bubble also popped it, but the Fed’s desperately low interest rates won’t be a refinancing bonanza for banks, as some predict. Too many problems remain: we have failed to deal with exaggerated appraisals underlying the stinky mortgages and the refinancing deals. We have failed to deal with the losses to the banks resulting from bundling and the creation of "nothing-backed" securities. The banks continue to use false appraisals and "stated income" applications in the refinance process without requisite due diligence or compliance with traditional underwriting limitations. And we don't yet know the effect of a bogus refinancing will be, when the bank doing the refinancing doesn't own the loan or even have authority to refinance it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/10/16/home-loans-from-washingt...

Not another.

That became the rallying cry as the local activist community — with a huge assist from social media — mobilized to save one of its own from foreclosure.

Rain Burroughs had fallen behind on the payments for her Oregon Hill dwelling. She had lost bankruptcy protection and learned that her home would be auctioned off Thursday by the Virginia Housing Development Authority if she didn't come up with nearly $13,000.

Burroughs and her ailing 12-year-old daughter, Summer, began packing.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/aug/03/tdmet01-michael-paul-will...

Over the past four years, Bruce Marks has been on a traveling road show to help people avoid foreclosure. His nonprofit, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, has held more than 80 events in cities around the country. So far, Marks says, NACA has helped 202,000 people get their payments lowered so they can afford to keep their homes.

"The banks now reach out to their borrowers, to their customers, to come to the NACA Save the Dream events so they're doing that because it makes business sense for them," Marks says.

He says he has figured out how to get this broken system to work better. In each city, he rents out a big convention center. All the big banks — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase — send teams of people, sometimes several hundred bank employees altogether. They can approve loan modifications on the spot for homeowners who show up and qualify.

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/16/158877539/persuading-banks-to-give-homeown...

Florida has been ground zero for foreclosure fraud, but even with multibillion-dollar settlements and federal consent orders, the state's financial services industry may face new scrutiny from a community activist who's taken a critical look at the industry and its practices.

Lisa Epstein, who's running for clerk of court in Palm Beach County, was once an oncology nurse. For most of her career she saw her patients strike deals with their banks when they ran into debt problems, particularly with mortgage payments, once they became ill.

But when the housing crisis struck and foreclosures mounted, that changed. Banks and mortgage servicers overloaded with delinquent loans struggled with the paperwork and the complexity of linking struggling borrowers with decision-makers. To speed up the foreclosure process, reams of documentation was mishandled, signed improperly and filed at county courthouses.

http://www.housingwire.com/news/foreclosure-fraud-combatant-eyes-clerk-c...

Shelby is a precious senior dog who was left behind in a foreclosure for who knows how long until the police found her there. She is emaciated and has a bad case of arthritis and neurological problems. She has a lot of vet bills in her future, and we are very lucky that one of our own rescued her from Orange County Animal Services right before her deadline, she had her time extended twice there. Any donations for Shelby's medical needs would be greatly appreciated. Please contact me via message on here for information on how to help this baby who is living out what time she has left in a loving home!

http://www.facebook.com/RuffTimesRescue

Ninety-seven California community groups, led by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), have submitted a detailed comment letter to Acting Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Edward J. DeMarco demanding changes to the FHFA's foreclosure policies, or his immediate resignation. The 97 groups are united in their concern about homeowners and tenants being displaced by FHFA's damaging policies. The coalition believes that the FHFA, under the guidance of DeMarco, has failed to prioritize the needs of homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments. As the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FHFA controls nearly 60 percent of all home loans nationwide. 

http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news28793/california-coalition-calls-changes-fhfa-foreclosure-policy-or-resignation-demarco

Is there a house in your neighborhood that everybody hates to walk past? You know, the one with broken and boarded up windows, trash left to gather on the lawn, and grass so overgrown it's becoming a habitat for rodents?

If you have a house like that in your community, you know it's more than just an eyesore. Neglected, vacant houses depress property values throughout the community, and can threaten health and safety. They erode the sense of community and stability that creates vibrant localities, and they hamper economic resiliency. With a national foreclosure crisis still in full swing, such houses are all too common.

You might be surprised to learn, though, that if you have problem properties like that in your neighborhood, there's a good chance your absentee neighbor is a bank.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-jenkins/racial-discrimination-by-_b_1...