Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis

Dangerous lending practices and loose underwriting in the subprime mortgage market, and the weakening economy more generally, have led to millions of foreclosures, with millions more to come. Not only is this devastating to the families who lose their homes, but millions more suffer as vacant homes create neighborhood blight, housing values and entire neighborhoods spiral downward, and taxing authorities lose critical revenue that supports education and other social services.

Our colleagues at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) are working to minimize these foreclosures by promoting legislation that will facilitate more loan modifications. At the same time, Self-Help is working in the Bay Area, throughout California, and nationally to mitigate the damage from ongoing foreclosures, while also creating and stabilizing wealth-building opportunities for some low-income families during this time of economic disruption.

Neighborhood Preservation

Self-Help is piloting local programs to stabilize neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.  In Charlotte, NC Self-Help has acquired nearly 20 homes in a 150 home neighborhood and has either sold or rented through a lease-to-purchase mortgage arrangement all the homes that it has rehabbed.  In California, we are working to launch a similar program in the East Bay as a partner in the East Bay Community Foundation's Foreclosure Recovery & Asset Building Pilot. Other partners in this project include Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond, One PacificCoast Bank, and Staley & MacArthur. Our primary goals are two-fold:  1) to help stabilize a neighborhood by acquiring foreclosed and blighted properties and rehabilitating them; and 2) to provide low-income families the opportunity to acquire well-maintained homes as new homeowners or lease-purchase tenants.