LUCHA, NHS of Chicago Open Free Walk-In Centers for Delinquent Borrowers With Freddie Mac Loans Borrower Help Centers are Key Part of National Mortgage Modification Pilot
January 28,
2010
Contact:
corprel@freddiemac.com
or (703) 903-3933
McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA) and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS) today announced the opening of a new walk-in Borrower Help Center where delinquent borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages can get free, confidential ‘holistic’ financial counseling and one-on-one help to obtain a mortgage modification from their lenders.
The new Borrower Help Centers on Chicago’s North and South Sides are part of a new national pilot program to provide holistic, financial counseling to borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages who are in financial distress and may be eligible for a loan modification but never called their mortgage servicers or have stopped trying.
“These centers are designed to help delinquent borrowers who are suffering during these trying times and want to save their homes from foreclosure but need a strong and reliable guide to navigate the workout process,” said Dwight Robinson, Senior Vice President for Corporate Relations and Housing Outreach at Freddie Mac. “We are working with LUCHA and the NHS of Chicago because they have the expertise and the community’s trust to be the difference that puts a borrower back on their financial feet and keeps a family in their home.”
Holistic financial counseling includes an assessment of borrower debt and credit issues that could affect their ability to make their mortgage payments after a modification. A recent NeighborWorks America study found borrowers who received such counseling from reputable non-profit groups are 60 percent more likely to avoid foreclosure than other borrowers.
Juan B. Rivera, Executive Director of Latin United Community Housing Association says, “In the LUCHA Freddie Mac Borrower Help Center home owners benefit from our twenty-seven years of experience helping homeowners. Our bi-lingual counselors will work with borrowers in crisis and servicers to develop the best workable solutions and do whatever is possible to keep homeowners from losing their home.”
“Since 1975, NHS has been proud to help homeowners buy, fix and keep their home. The new Borrower Help Center is an exciting new way to link borrowers to loss mitigation assistance that’s effective, responsive and quick. We’re thankful that Freddie Mac sees the value in partnering with housing counseling agencies to help reach borrowers and is receptive to counselor input. Our hope is the same as that of Freddie Mac: to help even more homeowners find alternatives to foreclosure,” says Michael van Zalingen, Director of Homeownership Services for Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Inc.
How the Borrower Help Centers Work
Potential eligible borrowers identified by Freddie Mac will be contacted by LUCHA or NHS of Chicago to schedule confidential, one-on-one appointments. Delinquent borrowers with Freddie Mac owned mortgages can also schedule free appointments by walking in to the Borrower Help Centers.
Counselors at each Borrower Help Center are trained to review Freddie Mac and Making Home Affordable workout requirements with their clients. Counselors will also provide one-on-one guidance to help borrowers apply for modifications, supply missing information or documents needed to move an application forward, and work with Home Retention Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Lender Services, Inc., to help borrowers effectively connect with their servicers. At the same time, counselors will work with borrowers on other outstanding debt and credit issues, such as credit card debts or auto loans that may also be causing financial distress.
The LUCHA Borrower Help Center is located on Chicago’s South Side at 1152 N Christiana Avenue, Chicago, Il. 60647. For more information, contact LUCHA at 773-489-8484.
The Chicago NHS Borrower Help Center on is located on Chicago’s North Side at 1279 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642. For more information, call 773-329-4185 (English) or 773-329-4181 (Spanish).
Freddie Mac is opening up similar Borrower Help Centers in Phoenix, Washington, DC and California’s Inland Empire and launching a separate Borrower Help Network of non-profit organizations to provide similar holistic financial counseling by phone to targeted borrowers nationwide. (For more information, visit freddiemac.com/avoidforeclosure.)
Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.
In 2009 Freddie Mac helped more than 250,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure through loan modifications, forbearances, repayment plans, modifications under Making Home Affordable and other alternatives. Freddie Mac accounts for nine percent of all seriously delinquent mortgages, but finances nearly 23 percent of the country’s home loans.
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