Baltimore homeowners who are having trouble meeting their mortgage payments will now be able to call the city's 311 number for referrals for assistance - part of an ambitious new initiative aimed at reducing the high number of foreclosures in the city.
The $800,000 program will pay for publicity and education, as well as greatly expanded counseling and legal services, principally through the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and Belair-Edison Neighborhoods Inc.
The aim of the effort by the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition is to provide increased opportunities for an independent review of loan documents before prospective buyers commit to a mortgage - and to encourage homeowners with financial problems to seek help before they become so deeply in debt that there is no alternative to losing their house.
Besides the obvious damage to the lives of individuals, advocates say foreclosures are an impediment to efforts to revive some of the city's fragile neighborhoods, in part by stimulating homeownership.
"What dawned on us is we're filling up a big bucket of water with a hole in the bottom," said Carol Gilbert, a program officer with the Goldseker Foundation and co-chairwoman of the coalition. "We've been focusing on new homeowners and not in keeping the ones we have."
Separately, Maryland officials this week warned consumers about unscrupulous private "foreclosure consultants" who dupe homeowners into giving away their homes in the guise of providing help with delinquent mortgage payments.
Nationally and locally, concern is growing that foreclosures could rise as higher interest rates push up adjustable-rate mortgages and credit-challenged homeowners who bought houses with subprime mortgages get squeezed by higher energy bills and a slowing economy.
In Chicago, a three-year effort to preserve homeownership in the city's low- and moderate-income neighborhoods helped more than 1,300 families avoid foreclosure, according to the July final report of the Home Ownership Preservation Initiative.
Half of the money for the Baltimore effort will come from federal dollars funneled through the city, with the remainder made up from grants from local and national nonprofits and a private lender.
A public announcement about the initiative to reduce foreclosures will be made today on a street corner in Belair-Edison in Northeast Baltimore.
