Fewer seek foreclosure help
The number of individuals requesting services from the county's Credit Crunch Collaborative to avoid foreclosure is down sharply from the program's inception in 2010.
Credit Crunch, formally known as the Butler County Consumer Credit/Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program, saw 225 homeowners or credit card holders request help when the program began.
Candace Graff, district court administrator, said last year just 47 cases were filed. Of those, 40 were mortgages and seven were credit cards.
Graff said 39 of those cases were successful through the “Crunch” program.
Butler County Court Judge Marilyn Horan developed and oversees the Crunch program, for which she won a state award in 2014 from the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation.
Horan said the housing situation and financial crash in 2008 and 2009 were the culprits for the proliferation of initial applicants.
“The big bubble with the foreclosures having occurred with the economy and the financial market back then (is the reason homeowners found themselves in foreclosure),” Horan said.
Martha Brown, director of grant management and resident services at the Housing Authority of Butler County, agreed that the housing bubble in the late 2000s was the impetus for the program.
She said the authority's home-ownership program collaborated with Horan a decade ago to get the Crunch program up and running.
“Not every county does these court conciliations,” Brown said. “It's been wonderful and helped so many people.”
Brown explained that homeowners who have received a foreclosure notice, which occurs after three months of nonpayment, will often see a note on the notice alerting them of the authority's programs to avoid losing their homes.
The homeowner then contacts the authority and is apprised of the classes available at the authority offices.
Professionals there also look at the homeowner's budget and run a credit check before going over the various options available to avoid foreclosure, Brown said.
Authority financial counselors often try to find ways to make more of the homeowner's income available to get caught up on their mortgage.For example, they are informed on how to get food or utility assistance.“We work with them to cut things out of their budget,” Brown said.The authority also works with many lenders to access the different programs they offer, like a forbearance or loan modification.If a homeowner has received a sheriff's notice that their home is being foreclosed upon, the authority works with Horan at the county court level to help buy the homeowner time to get his or her finances in order.“It's everyone working together to try to come up with a solution,” Brown said. “It buys the person time to come up with an option.”Horan said the courtroom experience is a true collaboration to try to help the sinking homeowner.She said the homeowner, housing authority, volunteer lawyers from the county Bar Association and the lenders' attorneys appear in her court not to argue for or against foreclosure, but to work together to keep the person in their home.“To a large degree, there's a lot of communication and exchanges of information and discussion on each case in the courtroom before I even take the bench,” Horan said.She makes rulings on some cases and others are resolved without her intervention.“The main focus of the program is to facilitate an atmosphere of communications between lenders and owners,” Horan said.She said the defendants get information from the pro bono lawyers on how foreclosure works, what to expect next and general timelines for various actions.“That's so people don't feel like they're standing on a trap door wondering 'When is my house going to be taken away from me?',” Horan said.Armed with information, some homeowners agree to a short sale or a delay in foreclosure if they see no way out of the inevitable.“But they can be the masters of their destiny,” Horan said.She said the program has been very successful in the county.“There is a very low percentage of cases in the program that do not have some positive outcome,” she said.Horan has found the Credit Crunch program very gratifying and is glad it's helping county homeowners.“The communication occurring within that setting and everyone focused on conclusions is a very, very good experience,” she said.In prior years, Horan held two sessions per month in her courtroom, but is now down to one per month. The next session is in March, she said.Brown said a few years back, some of the homeowners were those who had taken on a predatory loan and could not satisfy the balloon payment. Others had agreed to variable interest rates that went skyward and made the monthly payment impossible.“Those who are educated from the get go will be comfortable with us and if they do run into a program, they'll come in and say 'What do we do?'” Brown said.The authority provides free credit counseling or counseling for those considering buying a home.
