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Mortgage and foreclosure help from the New Jersey Hope Alliance

The housing crisis has hit New Jersey hard. The New Jersey Homeownership Preservation Effort (HOPE) alliance was created to help homeowners throughout the state. The organization is a collaborative effort that was formed to help families and individuals keep their homes, avoid or stop a foreclosure, and to provide information and access to various mortgage assistance programs.

The New Jersey Homeownership Preservation Effort (NJ HOPE) is made up of both state and federal government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, charities, national and local banks, and other financial institutions that are working together to enhance home ownership preservation.

Services offered by the NJ HOPE program

A variety of assistance programs are resources are offered by the organization. Their primary goal is help increase consumer awareness of available mortgage programs and products, communicate funding that is available, providing homeowners with increased access to credit, debt and loan counseling for those who need it, and the organization can even direct New Jersey homeowners with temporary financial assistance to consumers and homeowners who are in immediate danger of losing their home to foreclosure. More details of the resources include the following:

Refinancing and borrower/foreclosure assistance programs. Banks and lenders have committed to, as part of the NJ HOPE initiative, of offering a wide a variety of borrower assistance programs. The programs will provide mortgage relief, and help homeowners avoid a foreclosure. The services and resources offered will include mortgage refinance loans, free foreclosure counseling, closing cost assistance, debt and credit counseling, and waiving of private mortgage insurance requirements. Some of the banks that are participating including Citigroup, Bank of America, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and Commerce Bancorp.

Predatory lending assistance. Many New Jersey homeowners were provided questionable or illegal home loans. This is known as predatory lending. The term has become shorthand for describing a variety of questionable lending practices by banks and lenders that may be either disadvantageous or even illegal to borrowers. For example, it can mean any type of abusive lending practice where the bank or lender benefits through misrepresentation, unworthiness, deceit, bad faith, or even dishonesty. The New Jersey Homeownership Preservation Effort can provide you with solutions to predatory lenders.

Foreclosure counseling and mediation - If you are on the verge of foreclosure or in the process, the NJ Hope Program can still help. One of the main solutions they encourage is the Office of the Courts Foreclosure Mediation Program. This New Jersey foreclosure mediation program provides homeowners across the state with access to housing and mortgage counselors, and borrowers can communicate with court trained mediators to resolve foreclosure actions. Some of the solutions that can be offered and implemented include proposing loan workout and payment arrangements between distressed lenders and borrowers. The mediation program will also provide lawyers and housing counselors to income-eligible homeowners across New Jersey.

Twenty four hour access to counselors

The organization can be reached around the clock. Homeowners can contact the Homeownership Preservation Foundation at 1-888-995-HOPE. This is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week toll-free hotline that will put borrowers in touch with trained housing counselors to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

By Jon McNamara

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