NorCalUrban

As many of you know, we've been working in collaboration with the EARN group and one of the Menlo Park City Councilmen to implement an innovative approach toward saving local homeowners in foreclosure. This approach effectively de-leverages local homeowners through an innovative investment of city redevelopment funds coupled with mortgage write down by local banks. We believe this approach is exceedingly fair to both the city and the homeowner and could end up saving 10 to 13 homeowners. Additionally, we're hoping this will serve as a pilot program to other cities. Tomorrow night the city council will host a study session for the plan. If passed, the city will allocate $1 million to this project, to be paid back to city coffers over time. If all goes well it will go to a vote on October 6th. We have had positive feedback from the council and staff members to this point. There are a few ways you can help: 1) You can attend the council session tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 7:00 pm ...

See the entire article here. Menlo Park's City Council tonight will consider an innovative approach to preventing foreclosure for struggling homeowners - but one that comes with a big up-front price tag for the city. "To me, the most important thing is to keep people in their homes and not disrupt families, not take kids out of school," said Councilman Andy Cohen. "This is the only program on the horizon that does that." The Foreclosure Prevention Program targets owner-occupied homes with mortgages more than 90 days past due. Program administrators would approach the bank that holds the defaulting mortgage and ask it to sell the mortgage at the home's current fair market value - the same amount the bank would receive if the home went through foreclosure, but with fewer expenses and less time and trouble for the bank, said David Shapiro, CEO of the EARN Group, a Los Gatos company that develops real estate financing tools. A local community bank would then ref...

Editorial in the Almanac: "Quick Action Needed." See the article here. If you know one of the Menlo Park city council or government leaders, please reach out and indicate your support for NCUD and other's efforts.