Thanks for your series on the problem of mortgage fraud. As a non-profit working to revitalize Chicago’s neighborhoods for 30 years, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago knows all too well how such scams can ruin lives and destroy neighborhoods. This is why we established the Home Ownership Preservation Initiative in partnership with the City of Chicago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and more than 20 lenders and servicers doing business in our city. This group has been working for the last several years to address the underlying factors that contribute to foreclosure–the ultimate end of all the fraud cases you wrote about in this in-depth series.
In the first two years of this initiative, we helped 940 families avoid foreclosure, some of whom had been roped into fraudulent mortgages. In contrast to the vacant buildings and lots on the 6100 block of May Street, we reclaimed 175 formerly vacant or abandoned buildings for affordable homeownership.
We can do this because of the active involvement of community residents and the partnership of local and national lenders. Residents refer their neighbors in foreclosure to NHS of Chicago or the 311 non-emergency number where they get advice on how to handle mortgage delinquency. With their help we identify troubled buildings and then work with the city and lenders to turn them into community assets.
As part of the national NeighborWorks America network, we are working with other cities and states to replicate this partnership. We applaud the Tribune for your leadership in drawing attention to this critical issue.
