The National Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization Task Force has hailed the signing of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 into law by President Barack Obama, which was sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). In part, the Act provides an additional $1 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) administered by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD).Read more

NeighborWorks America has announced a series of consumer outreach efforts to support affordable, sustainable and healthy homes and communities during the 2010 National Homeownership Month. “For more than 30 years, NeighborWorks America and its network of affiliates around the country have supported and encouraged affordable and long-term homeownership,” said Ken Wade, chief executive officer of NeighborWorks America.Read more

Representatives from more than a dozen mortgage servicers plus several local U.S Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counselors were on hand recently in Anaheim and San Bernardino, Calif. to assist struggling homeowners with their mortgages. The four days of events saw 2,576 at-risk homeowners show up to learn about their options to make their mortgage payments more affordable and avoid foreclosure.Read more

At a briefing of state housing counselors held at the HomeFree-USA office in Prince George’s County in Maryland, Congressman Steny Hoyer and Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development Secretary Raymond Skinner both expressed their support for HOPE LoanPort, the new counselor Web-based tool that streamlines submission of completed loan modification applications, including those used for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). This effectively makes Maryland the first state in the nation to publicly endorse the HOPE LoanPort program.Read more

More than a dozen HOPE NOW servicers, including Bank of America, Chase, Citi, GMAC, Suntrust, Wells Fargo and others, assisted more than 1,300 homeowners from across the Pacific Northwest, during three homeownership preservation events held recently in the area. On March 23, 532 at-risk families were in attendance at the Doubletree Hotel in Portland, Oregon to meet with mortgage servicers and U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counselors. A two-day event in Bellevue, Wash. (Seattle area) on March 25-26 saw an additional 796 homeowners.Read more

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), in partnership with the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network, has announced the launch of PreventLoanScams.org. “Troubled homeowners lose time and money when they are tricked by con artists who promise to help but never do,” said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “This initiative combines the collective energies of public and private enterprises to strengthen the ability of law enforcement to prosecute scammers and protect homeowners.”Read more

NeighborWorks America, the administrator of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program announced that NFMC clients who receive foreclosure counseling are 1.6 times more likely to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure than homeowners who do not receive foreclosure counseling, according to findings in a recently released report.Read more

The following statement was released today by Jeffery Markowitz, vice president of government and industry relations, Freddie Mac in support of the Columbus, Ohio launch of the “Loan Modification Scam Alert” campaign by a coalition of federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and Freddie Mac: “Loan modification fraud is nothing less than a pre-meditated attack on our communities and the housing recovery.Read more

NeighborWorks America has announced that it received $4,860,802 in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), which will support training and certification opportunities for thousands of counselors from HUD-approved non-profit counseling agencies, as well as non-profit housing counseling at local NeighborWorks organizations.Read more

The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), in partnership with the U.S .Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), NeighborWorks America, and the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, is hosting a summit on foreclosure prevention on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Lower Manhattan from 8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m.Read more