With the mortgage crisis continuing to affect thousands of families across America, banks and nonprofits alike are looking for effective ways to help people stay out of foreclosure. Plenty of foreclosure counseling services are available – but are they reaching the right people, and are they reaching them on time?
A new service from the nonprofit Capital Area Foreclosure Network (CAFN) seeks to help as many families as possible with a bilingual text messaging campaign, created in partnership with Mobile Commons. The press release states, “The service will provide those in or worried about foreclosure with access to advice, reminders, and alerts through their mobile phones in either Spanish or English. The goals of the campaign are to increase the number of homeowners and renters that get help from a nonprofit housing counselor, and decrease the number of people who drop out of counseling.”
In other words, families don’t need internet access to get counseling. They can just text HOME or CASA to 877-877. They’ll immediately be texted back with a hotline number to a free, trained counselor at a HUD approved counseling organization. (They also have the option to opt in for free text reminders.) That’s especially important since, according to the press release, “Studies show that homeowners that seek help from a certified nonprofit counselor have a better chance of avoiding foreclosure than homeowners who work alone.”
CAFN is a joint project of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington. Read the full press release to find out more about the current state of the mortgage crisis in D.C. – and how this innovative program is helping.