ACORN, Urban League release SHARC on predatory lenders

BY DENNIS GEISINGER

The new year has brought out the teeth of a fighting response by local community resources to the recent invading flotilla of predatory lenders and merciless mortgage companies.

Through the efforts of community associations, ACORN and the Minneapolis Urban League, a new Sustainable Homeownership and Anti-foreclosure Response Center (SHARC) has been released into the mix of the Minneapolis home market.

“The whole mortgage industry was set up in a way that pushes people into bad loans,” said Alexa Milton, regional director of the ACORN Housing Corp. “Like brokers getting incentives for selling bad loans. Over the period of the last few years we’ve seen the most kinds of predatory lending,” Milton said.

“Often times the mortgage may not have been the right kind of loan for the particular person,” said David Oguamanam, director of Urban Leagues’ Housing Stability Program. “People also have an obligation to be a little bit more informed,” Oguamanam said.

“There’s really been a gap in services to people on the ground,” said Milton. “Some people that chose subprime mortgages could have qualified for prime mortgages,” Milton said.

Financial counseling programs and loan modification help is now available every Tuesday from 6 to 8 and every Saturday from 10 to 12 through the new Response Center in the Urban League headquarters at Penn and Plymouth in North Minneapolis, by phone or through partner programs across the city. The SHARC’s phone number is 612-827-9299.

“Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity has been very active in helping mortgagers on the Southside,” said Oguamanam. According to ACORN’s Milton, Southside residents can contact her organization if they are looking for help.

“They are welcome to come to the SHARC drop in center at the Urban League building,” said Milton. “They are also welcome to contact us directly to get started if they don’t want to come to the SHARC. Our intake number is 651-203-0008, and we can work with foreclosure clients either in person or over the phone” Milton said.

“ACORN staff are available for counseling,” said Milton. “We’ve been doing it for eight or nine years. Now in the last year and half the need for mortgage counseling is just exploding,” Milton said

According to the website foreclosure.com, the 365 foreclosures of land, townhouses, condos and single or multi-family homes by South Minneapolis zip codes include 78 for 55406; 141 for 55407; 45 for 55409; 66 for 55417; and 35 for 55419.

“The numbers of respondents so far have kept us very busy,” Oguamanam told Southside Pride over the phone in the first days of February. “From the time our phone line was opened on Jan. 5, we’ve had over 200 calls. I’ll know when I release our first report in early April how many homes have been saved,” said Oguamanam.

The SHARC generally has three qualified staffers available, depending on need, to screen people for their eligibility for programs. Foreclosure prevention programs focus on the early stages of foreclosure, before people get too far behind on their mortgage payments, according to Oguamanam.

ACORN was essential to the Minneapolis Jan. 18 passage of a nonbinding resolution calling on lenders to stop foreclosures for three months. The need for some type of response to those caught up in the current home mortgage crisis has been stressed by 2008 Presidential candidates, especially since news of recession has taken hold.

“Talk of recession fits into the whole equation,” said Oguamanam. “We’ll just have to wait and see about getting any help from the current round of politicians,” he said. In the end, the SHARC is left to show the way.

“We try to stress two things to borrowers,” Oguamanam said. “If you have a subprime mortgage, the sooner you start looking for new financing, the better; and, for all those who are paying on a home loan, make a budget and stick to it.”