It’ll be a long Saturday.
From noon to 7 p.m. June 7 in Westbury, Long Island homeowners will be able to have their mortgages examined one-on-one by representatives of their lenders or their mortgage servicing companies. Nonprofit mortgage counselors, attorneys, Nassau County officials and state banking employees will also be at hand to help.
The free forum is latest event under Operation Protect Your Home, the brainchild of state Senate Democrats and a partnership with the state banking department and mortgage companies. The goal is to connect borrowers with lenders and mortgage servicers in face-to-face meetings to prevent foreclosures.
More than 4,000 letters have been sent to at-risk homeowners in the area, but any homeowner can walk in to try to get loan changes or learn about credit and foreclosures, sponsors said. Priority will be given to invited borrowers who are late on payments or whose mortgage interest rates are scheduled to reset soon.
The day-long event helps counter one of the most common complaints of the mortgage crisis – homeowners who need help and their advocates often say no one from the bank or mortgage lender returns their calls, or if they do, it may be weeks late or they may say documents already submitted have not been submitted.
“Nassau has been bearing the brunt of this foreclosure crisis,” said Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), who’s sponsoring the Westbury forum with Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. “It is our hope that by bringing the banks and the homeowners together here, we can replicate and build upon the success that Operation Protect Your Home has had in other parts of the state.”
Participating companies are Countrywide, Option One, Ocwen, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, Home Loan Services, Wilshire, and WAMU.
Homeowners will be directed to their lenders or mortgage servicers, and some may be able to have their loans refinanced, which carry closing costs, or problems addressed on the spot, if they have all their documents, Johnson's office said. Loan modications, which include changing interest rate or length of loan, should carry no or lower costs.
Borrowers whose lenders aren’t present may go to a counselor or other experts there for help.
Johnson’s aides said homeowners will be asked to do exit interviews. This way, the Senate office and Suozzi’s office will be able to keep track of what happened in each case and follow up with unresolved problems or contact lenders not at the forum.
The location is Joseph M. Barry Career and Technical Educational Center (BOCES), 1196 Prospect Ave. For more information or to make an appointment with a participating lender, call Johnson’s director of community affairs, Abdul Hakim, at 516-746-5923.
--Ellen Yan