State’s Mortgage Relief Project helps South Side families keep their homes

In an effort to stem foreclosures, the State’s Mortgage Relief Project played host to South Side families, who are struggling to keep their homes, during Governor Pat Quinn’s June 23rd outreach event Chicago’s Kennedy-King College.

The Mortgage Relief Project is a direct result of the Homeowner Protection Act signed earlier this year by Governor Pat Quinn. The new law provides a grace period of up to 90 days on mortgage foreclosures for homeowners that enter housing counseling. It also requires that all lenders and loan servicers notify homeowners who are at least 30 days late on their mortgage payments that they have 30 days to seek housing counseling to get their loan back on track. If a homeowner enters housing counseling, he or she gets an additional 30-day grace period on foreclosure in order to work out a payment plan or refinance option.

“Many South Side residents took advantage of the private, one-on-one housing counseling offered by the HUD-certified professionals,” said Brent Adams, Acting Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. “As a result, we hope many of them will be able to lower their mortgage payments and stave off foreclosure.”

In addition to housing counseling, the free Mortgage Relief Project workshops offered homeowners helpful advice to prevent foreclosure, understand their legal rights and recognize the tell-tale signs of mortgage fraud.

“Often times, homeowners struggling to make ends meet become targets of unscrupulous real estate and mortgage scam artists who can literally steal a person’s home. Suspected cases of mortgage fraud are vigorously pursued through Governor Quinn’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force,” Adams said.

Governor Quinn’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force was formed in 2006 to investigate and stop mortgage fraud. Since its inception, the MFTF has taken disciplinary action against nearly 100 persons and entities and assessed fines in excess of $700,000.

Last year, the MFTF conducted a regulatory sweep of more than 150 mortgage companies to ensure that they were complying with a new law that established stricter underwriting standards for mortgage companies.

For more information, please call IDFPR’s toll-free hotline (800) 532-8785 or visit www.idfpr.com or www.ihda.org.  A list of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies in Illinois can be found at www.hud.gov.