Foreclosure isn’t the only option for homeowners facing financial struggles, a local housing expert said Tuesday.
David Johnson, executive director and CEO of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, said the agency has a foreclosure hotline that families can call to get help with financial counseling.
“We’ve learned that, when people know that help is available, they will come,” Mr. Johnson told more than 150 people who attended the annual Fair Housing Luncheon sponsored by the city’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Office of Multicultural Affairs Executive Director Beverly Cosley told residents and community leaders to share the information they’ve learned at the luncheon with others.
“Education is so powerful,” she said. “It helps people get a better understanding to make affordable housing not only their dream, but their reality.”
HOTLINEThe Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise Foreclosure Prevention Hotline number is 664-HOME or 664-4663.FAIR HOUSING ACTPresident Lyndon Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law on April 11, 1968, one week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings and housing-related transactions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability.Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise is a nonprofit organization created in 1986 to promote affordable housing for city residents with low-to-moderate incomes.
Despite reports that Chattanooga has not been as hard hit by foreclosure as other cities, about 2,200 families here received foreclosure notices in 2009, Mr. Johnson said. About 900 of them actually lost their homes to foreclosure, he said.
For the first three months of 2010, about 30 to 40 families a month have sought help from Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, Mr. Johnson said.
“We see no end to these numbers,” he said.
Seeing the rise in foreclosed homes motivated Mr. Johnson to start the foreclosure hotline in 2009. The city’s Department of Neighborhood Services assisted by awarding a community development block grant to help Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise assist residents.
About 219 families facing foreclosure came to the agency for help, he said, and 212 of them have remained in their homes after receiving counseling, Mr. Johnson said as the audience applauded.
In Chattanooga, only 39 percent of the people who receive foreclosure notices even seek help, Mr. Johnson said. For most, the warning letters lay on a table unopened. The longer those letters are unanswered, the less time homeowners have to stop the foreclosure process, he said.
It is possible for residents to save their home if they call a housing counselor quickly after receiving a notice, he said.
Despite the number of foreclosures, the American dream of owning a home still is alive in Chattanooga, Mr. Johnson said. Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise gave loans to buyers in 145 families who became first-time homeowners in the past year, he said.
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