Subprime Foreclosure Crisis Swamps Non-Profits

The National Catholic Reporter reports:

• The subprime mortgage crisis plaguing the nation’s economy has put extreme pressures on Catholic agencies in many parts of the country, swelling caseloads for counselors scrambling to help borrowers avoid mortgage foreclosures and upgrade financial skills. Where foreclosures cannot be avoided, groups are helping families find other housing, or seeking creative solutions to keep them in homes they can no longer afford.

• Dave Pesch, the housing counseling program manager at Catholic Charities of Erie, Pa., said his staff of four counselors can’t keep up with the flood of clients in danger of losing their homes in the wake of the subprime mortgage mess. “We have counselors working seven days a week,” he said. “We are overwhelmed.” Pesch’s office, like several Catholic Charities affiliates across the country, advises clients on how they can avoid foreclosure and negotiates with homeowners’ banks to work out refinancing or payment plans to keep clients in their homes. In some locations, such as Erie and St. Louis, the caseload has doubled or tripled in the past two years. “It’s like a ship that starts to take on water.”

For more, see Subprime loan crisis swamps agencies (Housing advocates scramble to assist clients facing foreclosure).