Plans Afoot For Further Extension Of Foreclosures Prevenetion Umbrella

March 10th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

For four years an operation has been running trying to help workers stay in the houses that are their homes, if they lose their jobs. This plan is soon going to embrace the whole state. There are plans afoot by Senator Walter Dalton (Democrat from Rutherford) to initiate a legislation in the General Assembly in its next session in May to push forward the Home Protection Pilot Program to include more than the 61 counties it now covers.

According to the existing programme that is administered by the N.C. Housing Finance Agency, qualified applicants are offered a bridge loan that is free from interest amounting to maximum $20,000 to clear 18 months of mortgage payment or the equal amount required to bring the payments current. The funds could be utilized for mortgage payments or to pay the insurance and tax dues of the house owner. So far 312 families have availed of this benefit. 439 have been able to ward off foreclosures said Margaret Matrone, a spokesperson of N.C, Housing Finance Agency. The average amount of loans taken is $10,000.

After reports came in about unemployment numbers in the textile sector rising in other counties Dalton has taken this move to extend the programme beyond some of the counties already includedin the 61 – Alamance, Franklin, Harnett, Person, Vance, Warren and Wilson. In the state, foreclosures have risen by 9.4% over 2006, in 2007. Dalton feels all the 100 counties should come under this protective umbrella. He is vociferous about the need for standing beside those who are simultaneously battling foreclosures and job loss. Dalton is confident of getting support this time as he got last time. The real problem will be finding funds within the gambit of the budget.

The plan allows the applicant to an immediate stay of 120 days from foreclosures giving time for the application to be reviewed. Sometimes this relief has been enough to allow the person to get another job and avoid taking of any further loan.

While a national crisis in foreclosures is raging across the nation little steps taken in different localities will have a big effect on the total picture. The foreclosures are not uniform but vary in degrees of concentration from one place to another. The worst hit are California, Nevada and Florida. But even here it is not evenly distributed but vary in intensity.