New Foreclosure Hotline For Financially Strapped New Jersey Homeowners Gets 6,000+ Calls In First 3 Days

In Newark, New Jersey, The Star Ledger reports:

• A statewide foreclosure prevention hotline that began Friday has been unable to handle the overload of calls, said David Wald, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.
  "The response has been pretty phenomenal," he said.

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• [Melville D. Miller Jr., president and general counsel of Legal Services of New Jersey, which runs the hotline] noted that by 2 p.m. [Tuesday], the hotline's three dozen staffers had received 6,000 calls. The subjects ranged from people worrying that foreclosure is on the horizon to those who have actually received a foreclosure notice, he said.(1) [...] The hotline, 1-888-989-5277, is staffed Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For the story, see Blackout leaves foreclosure line unable to answer residents' calls.

(1) The free program reportedly links homeowners with certified housing counselors who can recommend mort gage options including the waiving of fees and penalties or lowered interest rates. If counseling yields no resolution, the case moves to mediation, at which time the homeowners may be eligible, based on income, for free legal representation.