Faces Of Foreclosure

NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) has been holding “Save The Home” events across the states, including San Francisco from Friday, October 16 through Tuesday October 19 at the old Cow Palace.

On Sunday, October 18, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. amazing stories were told by people who got their home loan restructured right then and there. Bank of America was dramatically coming through for people — 30 years fixed at 2-3%, mortgage money owed put at the back of the loan, back-taxes taken care of . . . Many of the loans were $500-$1200 LOWER than they were when the person showed up at the doors.

If you have hit a rough time in your life and need help to save your home, consider attending one of their “Save the Home” sessions, or at review their website to see if you qualify. (It does have to be your principal residence, not investment property, and you do have to have income from other than unemployment.)

“Save the Dream” days are grueling, but well worth it. You will see that you are in a very big boat with thousands of very fine other working people in the room. NACA’s staff is extraordinary and phenomenally hardworking. Everyone was impressed with how wonderful NACA’s crew is — about 100 volunteers and about 250 loan counsellors lined up at banks of computers for 14-18 hour days to help people.

Drill is:

1. Fill out forms on line at NACA’s site. Bring all of your papers with you to their meeting(s), especially updated financial information, current paystubs, copy of mortgage billing (including your second, if you have one). They have it all on file, but bring it anyway as it makes it easier for everyone. Bring a book to read. (One woman made substantial headway on the baby blanket she was knitting for her nephew.)
2. Get to the meeting site about 5-6 a.m. (the later you arrive, the longer you will be there as the lines do grow fast). You will stand in line waiting for doors to open. I showed up at 10 a.m. and that was a big mistake; while I did not wait in line because everyone was already inside, it was so late in the day that and I almost didn’t get to see a counsellor; I didn’t get to see a banker at all and have to go back (at 5-6 a.m. and stand in line).
3. Once you are in the doors, you will have to attend a counselling workshop. This process takes 2-3 hours. If you have attended a NACA workhsop already, this is exactly the same, but you will need to do this again to get a voucher.
4. After the workshop, you sit and wait and wait and wait. The food concessions at the Cow Palace were open, but it’s expensive and not healthy food — all fatty and mostly fried — no fruits or vegetables. Because the day is so long, I recommend taking fresh fruit, water and maybe a sandwich to keep you healthy.
5. It is extremely well-organized by section. NACA’s volunteers keep you apprised of the wait time as best they can, but, again, it is a very long day. Quite a few families brought their children; if that can be avoided, I would advise so doing. It’s too much to ask a toddler to sit for 12-14 hours. A close friend just had a heart attack and wanted to go with me because she will now need help for several months; this would have been a disasterous mistake.

While you are waiting, families who have received a solution relate their stories. The stories brought tears to my eyes repeatedly. Losing a loved one is the only thing worse than losing your home. Owning a home is the American Dream; NACA is trying to keep that dream true . . . thus the name “Saving the Dream.”

• A woman’s home was not only saved, her loan went from nearly 11% to 2% fixed for 30 years. Her payments dropped by about $1500/month. (Assistance is based on ability to maintain. The goal is to KEEP you in your home.) Her parting words: “God is good if you believe. Keep trying!”
• One man said his family had actually completely lost their home, had moved out, the home sat empty on the market. His family got their home back on Saturday!
• Wonderful young couple from Las Vegas with three children had been trying to get help for months. In addition to the long drive to San Francisco, they waited three days to get through the process. Their mortgage was reduced by about a thousand dollars a month.

Talked to all kinds of people around me: Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese), Indian (from Fiji and they’d never seen India, which I thought interesting), black families, Hispanic families, Samoan, Armenian (truly — they needed a translator), Vietnamese and those of us defined as “White.” It reminded me of what Ellis Island must have been like with the huddled masses waiting in huge rooms praying for a new life. NACA is giving new life.

This gathering comes at a time when I am researching information on DNA; just yesterday, I attended a geneaology workshop. Until a new theory is proven (if there be a new theory), we all came out of Africa through migratory paths through Asia, Europe and points south; and we can be traced back to Africa through our DNA. I bring this up because I read many blogs attempting to segment people facing financial hardships as “the other,” “those that did something wrong,” “not us.” Guess again. We are all “us.” I hope the people waiting in the room at NACA also realize how alike we all are, take that home with them, and greet their multi-colored, multi-cultural neighbors in a new way.

There is so much proof of our inter-connectedness. Consider the similarities of world art. Years ago, the Russian author Dmitrii Nagishkin wrote Folktales of the Amur: Stories from the Russian Far East. It is beautifully illustrated with images that clearly point out the mixing of cultures, including the East, Far East, Native Americans and down into South America.

NACA, for those who don’t know, was started by Bruce Marks in Boston about ten years ago. It is extraordinary what ONE person can do. We’ve seen the dark side of the carnage created by people like Bernie Madoff and his ilk; here is a bright side. What Marks is doing is akin to what Martin Luther King did. Mr. Marks is levelling the playing field. He is ignoring the rules, ignoring the larceny which surrounds us, and creating a new dream for people . . . or recreating the dream of home ownership at a time in America when millions of people have been thrown out of their homes.

On those blogs I mentioned above, many insist that “it is the families’ fault.” Has anyone figured the odds of 4 million families (10 million people) all making the same mistake.

Many of us met with counsellors at 10 p.m. Because bank reps had gone home around 9 p.m., we have to go back Tuesday as early as possible.

Very tiring, but also exhilirating due to amazing heartwarming stories of people who got excellent help on the spot. Most larger banks were on site. FYI, Wachovia (now owned by Wells) isn’t negotiating at all yet — they are waiting for an Obama Plan in November.

Tags: avoid foreclosure, foreclosure, NACA, Save The Dream Tour, waiting for a home save consultation

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 8:45 am and is filed under faces of foreclosure, in the news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.