The Stresses Of A Housing Counselor On Front Lines In Foreclosure Fight

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Weekly reports on the stresses experienced by a newly trained housing counselor who is working for a national non-profit group helping people save their homes from foreclosure.

• [O]fficially, the job of a housing counselor is to mediate between lenders and homeowners, always with the goal of averting the foreclosure. Unofficially, they’re part therapist, part best friend, part rescue worker. A day’s work involves calming down panicked homeowners, asking uncomfortable questions about finances and making pleading phone calls to unsympathetic lenders—knowing all the while the clock is ticking toward every foreclosure’s final destination, a sheriff’s sale.

For more, see “I’m All They’ve Got" (Dealing with the stress that comes with counseling people who could lose their home).