PHILADELPHIA Looking to capitalize on someone else’s misfortune with a foreclosure sale? Don’t look in Philadelphia because Sheriff John Green has stayed the foreclosure sales and instead is offering help and hope to beleaguered homeowners.
The sheriff’s office, well known for securing courtrooms, transporting prisoners and auctioning foreclosed properties, has now become the place for families to turn when foreclosure comes knocking. “More of our neighbors, our families and our friends are falling behind on their mortgages and losing their homes to sheriff’s sale. My staff and I watch the suffering every day and witness the heart-wrenching scenes as families lose their primary means of wealth-building and face eviction,” wrote Sheriff Green on his Web site, www.phillysheriff.com. “In Philadelphia, the number of sheriff’s sale properties has increased from an average of 300 to 400 per month to more than 1,000. The city’s broad and diverse networks of Housing Counseling Agencies and Credit Counseling Services have been our front-line defense, but their staffs are overloaded, increasingly frustrated by reams of red tape, and slowed by the proliferation of voice mail and procedural barriers,” the sheriff said. He added, “These agencies desperately require this city’s attention and its help. Today, I am announcing a new initiative designed to slow the dramatic rise in local foreclosures, and to keep more financially troubled, but credit-worthy, borrowers in their homes.” That’s where Sheriff Green’s three-point plan, “A Declaration of Neighborhood Security: Safeguarding The Right to Protect Our Homes,” comes in. It proposes a massive publicity campaign to alert borrowers who are falling behind in their payments to steps they must take to delay foreclosure and negotiate a suitable repayment plan. Second, a community-wide coalition would be created to look at short-term and long-term legislative solutions dealing with issues such as attorney fees and the need for third-party loans to help provide temporary mortgage assistance to FHA borrowers. Third, the plan seeks to rally community support and provide immediate relief in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the rising tide of foreclosures. Sheriff Green started halting foreclosure sales in 2004 when he noticed an unusual rise in the number of properties up for sale. When the rise began again in 2007, City Councilman Curtis Jones also took notice. This year, he proposed a resolution imposing an indefinite moratorium on foreclosure sales, which Sheriff Green was happy to enforce. Called the “Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot,” under court order no house can be sent to a sheriff’s sale without the owner-occupant having court-sponsored mediation. Before mediation, the home-owner must take part in a free housing-counseling session to draw up a reasonable proposal to present to the mortgage company. If the counselor cannot work out a deal, then the borrower and advocates for the borrower and lender appear at a conciliation session before a temporary judge. If that doesn’t work, it goes back to court for an intervention, and if that doesn’t work, their homes can move to sheriff’s sale. (NNPA)
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