Home rescue fair Saturday

Are you in danger of losing your home to foreclosure and think there’s no hope for you?

A local government agency – the Dalton-Whitfield Community Development Corp. – says now is not the time to throw in the towel and give up.

That agency, along with the Alliance for Stabilizing Our Communities, will host a free Home Rescue Fair on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center to help Dalton’s multicultural communities facing foreclosure to identify and procure the best housing solutions possible.

A list of lenders that will be present at the event has been finalized and includes Regions Bank, SunTrust Bank, BB&T;, Bank of America, Countrywide, Taylor, Bean and Whitaker, Wilshire Credit, Chase Mortgage, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Even if your lender is not listed, you can still take care of preliminary paperwork that will help start the process.

“Our local governments want their citizens to keep their homes because it makes our community a better place, and without the budgetary support of the Whitfield County and Dalton governments, we wouldn’t be here to be able to provide this assistance,” said Gaile Jennings, director of the Community Development Corp.

She said events like the Home Rescue Fair usually attract an average of 20 lenders, who are authorized to do loan modifications that day. “When people walk out of the trade center that day, they’ll have something in their hand to help their situation,” Jennings said.

Even if a person’s specific lender is not there that day, participating in the home rescue fair will still start the ball rolling and get the process started to save their home.

“The Alliance for Stabilizing Our Communities and the Community Development Corp. have organized this event to help provide you with the tools and resources you need to make informed decisions about the options available to you,” Jennings said.

She stressed that there is no reason to feel embarrassed about seeking the service. “We are here to help people in need,” she said. “It used to be that the number of people facing foreclosure would fit in a rowboat; now it would take the Titanic to hold them.”

With unemployment more than 13 percent in Whitfield County, it’s no surprise that 70 percent of the CDC’s clients in the past 11 months have been seeking foreclosure prevention help. Three years ago, that number was 2 percent; last year as the economy began its freefall, it climbed to 50 percent.

“People don’t go into foreclosure because they feel like it,” Jennings said. “The two biggest reasons are loss of income due to fewer hours or loss of job or a major medical issue so that there is just not enough money to go around.”

Unfortunately, the economic crisis has brought an increase in scam operators, who often send out legitimate-looking letters that have fooled some homeowners into sending money to these bogus companies.

“If people try to solve their foreclosure problems on their own,” Jennings said, “sometimes they can get scammed. Even if they call their lenders, they will get the Collections Department, where it is their job to collect money. But if they come to us, we will call someone whose job it is to save their loan. We have certain phone numbers we can call that are not available to the general public, and we can get help for these people.”

At the Home Rescue Fair, homeowners will benefit from:

-One-on-one sessions with a loan specialist

-HUD-approved housing counselors and attorneys

-Foreclosure prevention workshops (many of which will be going on in the waiting area before clients are seen)

-Assistance in English and Spanish.

Whitfield County is one of only 27 communities nationwide where the Rescue Fairs are being held and will be the site of the only fair being held in North Georgia.

If you need help, you must bring the following documents with you to the Rescue Fair: current pay stubs (within the past 30 days), 2007 and 2008 income-tax returns, three months of bank statements, household expense budget, copy of closing documents and most recent correspondence from your mortgage company, and most recent property insurance and mortgage statements. A hardship letter in which you explain how you came to need help is also helpful.

“With this information, even if your lender is not at the Rescue Fair, we can still start the process so that we can schedule an appointment with you and be ready to contact your lender,” Jennings said.

More than 50 volunteers are needed to help run the fair, and if you’d like to fill that role to help your fellow residents keep their homes, call Jennings at (706) 876-1677.

Parents are encouraged to leave their children with other caregivers, but if that is not possible, a child care area will be staffed throughout the day, except for kids in diapers.

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