Unemployed distressed homeowners in Ohio counties of Knox and Holmes as well as Coshocton and Ashland may have an opportunity to avoid house repossession with the loan payment assistance program of the Kno-Ho-Co-Ashland Community Center.
This program serves as a reprieve for homeowners who lost their jobs and on the brink of losing their properties to foreclosure.
The center’s services administrator Pam Wright said that house repossession is being reported every day and her organization has been getting calls for mortgage assistance. The assistance program is the first for the community center.
Under the program, assistance will be provided to distressed homeowners who are delinquent in mortgage payments for 90 days and have lost a job or been part of a massive layoff since the start of 2008.
Homeowners who have found a new job but receiving low wage and still struggling to make mortgage payments may qualify for the program. Wright said that program targets homeowners who are creditworthy and typically, never asked or needed assistance.
Data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services showed that last year’s unemployment rate in Holmes was 4.8 percent. Half way through this year and the average unemployment rate rose by 7.7 percent.
Under the loan payment assistance program, the maximum benefit that homeowners could receive is $1,000. Additionally, mortgage lenders should allow homeowners to stay for another month and house repossession proceedings should end immediately.
Wright said that the center is hoping that the initiative would become a long-term financial assistance program. She added that the program hopes to allow homeowners and lenders to come up with viable long-term solutions to the problem, such as reducing interest rates or payments.
In 2005, there were 33 foreclosed properties in Holmes which increased in succeeding years. Twenty-three out of 33 were reportedly sold. Now, 40 foreclosures were reported that are still waiting to be processed.
To qualify for the loan payment assistance program, county residents should belong in the 200 percent poverty level. But with the goal of the program to help the unemployed, homeowners’ household income for at least three months may be used as basis for qualification.
According to experts, a family composed of four members belonging at the 200 percent poverty level typically receives an estimated income of $11,025 for at least three months.
The assistance money will be made available to homeowners to avoid house repossession until September of 2010.
