|
April 07, 2010
Under intense pressure from public, Bank of America pledges at the event to respond to borrowers & counselors within 3 days
Yesterday, over 100 housing counselors, advocates and borrowers from across North Carolina met with representatives from the Treasury Department in charge of administering the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) to lift up what isn't - as well as what is - working with HAMP and point out what they see as concrete solutions to the problems plaguing the year-old loan modification program.
When it was rolled out last year, Treasury announced that HAMP would help 3 to 4 million homeowners. An audit last month by the Special Inspector General of TARP put that number closer to 500,000 to 667,000. With unemployment expected to remain high, as many as 9 million homeowners could face foreclosure over the coming years.
Under intense pressure from grassroots organizations and housing advocates who have been urging Treasury for months to hold servicers more accountable to complying with HAMP regulations, Bank of America pledged at the event to respond to inquiries about mortgage modifications within three days. Currently, homeowners and counselors often wait weeks or even months to get a response from servicers, if they get a response at all.
Rebecca Marione, national default servicing executive for Bank of America, acknowledged at the event that, "We aren't treating the customers as well as we'd like...from a customer service standpoint we haven't been stellar."
We're glad that Treasury is coming out into the community and hearing directly from people affected by foreclosure about their frustrations working with their banks," said Stella Adams, former executive director of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center and a board member for the state's NAACP chapter. "And we're glad that Bank of America is starting to recognize that they need to treat their customers with greater care. Good intentions aren't enough though; we expect to see swift follow through and measurable accountability."
Tuesday's meeting in Charlotte was organized by the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, and is the first in a series of ten community-based meetings on HAMP with the Treasury Department. The series is sponsored by the PICO National Network, an alliance of 51 faith-based community organizations working to create solutions to the foreclosure crisis. The meetings - which will take place in Illinois, California, New York, Ohio and other states - are meant to help Treasury hear directly from borrowers, housing counselors, and advocates about their experience of HAMP, and comes shortly after Treasury announced a series of changes to the program.
|
JULY
5 Elder Marian Wagner
6 Lisa Hill
11 Judy Coxen
25 Traci Potter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Opportunity to Be a Gift
Prayerfully make a special offering to
Free Spirit Worship Center.
|
|
Anniversary Gala at Home
25 Years of Giving Hope in Our Community
5:30-7:30pm Tuesday, 21 September 2010
- Honoring some of the founders:
Rev. Dr. David Smith, Rev. Ken Whitwer and founding president Betsy Dole
- Honoring Jan Williams for her years of service as director of UCOM
- Homemade international foods prepared by folks in UCOM’s “extended family”
- New video Faces of UCOM: Telling Our Own Story
- Will you sponsor a table of your friends? 10 people /$500/Individual tickets $60
|
Spiritual Connections
Wednesdays, 7:00 pm
Please read : 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal Boot Camp
Four-week Session 1 ½ Hour each
Thursdays, 5:30 p.m.
Contact David Adams, Sr.
322-5142 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
ACCESS of West Michigan Tidbits:
1. Access OSM Information Updates We know that benevolence volunteers change all the time and information on how we can work together doesn’t always get passed on. Access Caseworkers will be presenting a free Benevolence 101 workshop on August 24 from 7-9pm to go over benevolence program ideas as well as how Access can help you help others. In the meantime, I have attached a summary of what the OSM program is and how we can help you help others. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or phone 774-2175 Marcia ext. 701 / April ext. 702 Also, as your ‘term’ ends, you may want us to stop sending you emails. For this, or any other changes, please let us know so we can update our email address list.
2. Access Food For Families Access, TV 13 and Spartan Foods have just completed their annual Food for Families food drive. Numbers aren’t in yet, but there are some other statistics that might be of interest that I thought I would share….
-
In Kent County, the number of people on State food assistance went up 42% from 72,172 to 102, 488
-
Kent County DHS processes 2,700 NEW applications each week for their various programs
-
Rockford saw a 52% increase in food stamp assistance from 2008 to 2010
-
Government food stamp assistance programs are not intended to be the only food supply resource for a family so food pantries are essential to help stretch the food dollars and assure that no one goes hungry
|
Council Meeting
Wednesday, July 21
5:30 pm
|
|
"Cool Congregations"
Solving Global Warming One Family at a Time
Add a new dimension to your stewardship program where congregants: Pledge energy efficiency,
Save money, Prevent global warming pollution.
How? Attend the training workshop on Saturday, June 26, 2010 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Hope Reformed Church, 2010 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507.
Workshop facilitated by Patty Gillis for MI Interfaith Power and Light.
|
Meijer Community Rewards
is on going
Sign Up slips are at church
or at all Meijer service desks.
A Meijer’s credit card will earn us 1% per dollar spent at any Meijer’s or C-stop gas stations. A small key ring card that is scanned at check out earns us ½% on every dollar.
Our organization’s number is 660364.
Please consider doing this
as every little bit helps.
|
Weekly Memo 