Foreclosure Prevention

Councilman Nurse’s proposal to shift funds towards a significant increase in foreclosure prevention counseling has been before the Housing Services Committee of City Council. The staff will come back in early July with a plan to do this. City Council will then review it in committee and send it to the full council. Our hope is to kick off a major effort to help those homeowners, who live in their home and took a “teaser rate” mortgage, through the process of refinancing to a traditional 30-year loan that they can afford. We hope to prevent hundreds of foreclosure in St. Petersburg. This helps the homeowner and the neighborhood not have empty houses.

UPDATE - 7/12/08
I attended a foreclosure prevention event today put on by our Congressmember
Kathy Castor in Tampa where over 400 people got help from banks, and non-profit counseling agencies to refinance their homes and prevent foreclosure.
Cong. Castor has agreed to help us put on a similiar event in St. Petersburg
in the fall. Details will follow.

HELP IS ON THE WAY - We have successfully transferred $100,000 in housing funds to be used to staff foreclosure prevention counselors at non-profit
housing related agencies effective August 1st. We hope to save several hundred families from losing homes as a result of this counseling. The experts will be able to steer families through the refinancing process to
avoid foreclosure.

8/5/08 - The first agency to get funding for foreclosure prevention counseling is Tampa Bay C.D.C. Their phone number is 446-6222. Additional
agencies will be funded starting October 1st.

Foreclosure Prevention Workshop is August 16th at 9AM at the Enoch Davis Center, 1111 -18th Ave. S. Banks, counselors and speakers will all be available. Today, I was the guest on the Police and Community show on WRXB
in an effort to spread the word on the workshop.

The City and County will jointed sponsor a similiar event at the Colesium on
October 18th from 9 AM - 1PM. We will have representatives of several banks,
foreclosure prevention counselors, and other agencies available to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

UPDATE 2/18/09 The President's proposal to help people hold on to their houses was announced today. The details will come out in two weeks. I intend to help spread the word as soon as I learn the details. We may do an
event to get all the banks and financial counselors together for the folks who
need them

UPDATE 7/20/09 I will be participating in another foreclosure prevention event at the Enoch Davis Center on August 22nd. This is being done with Florida CFO, Alex Sink. The Banks will have people there to explain the latest options to rework mortgages. The rules have been changed within the last few weeks to help in places like St. Petersburg where values have dropped.