JUNE 15

In just over four years, the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program has served more than 1.3 million at-risk homeowners across the country and helped to build the nation’s foreclosure counseling capacity, according to the program’s update to Congress.

Maryland ranks among the most effective states at connecting families to counselors and pro bono legal services, according to the report.

The state’s efforts will get a boost from the attorney general’s mortgage servicing settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders. Counselors meeting Thursday at DHCD’s Crownsville headquarters learned how to respond to a newly issued Request For Proposal for housing counseling funding and legal services funding. Visit DHCD’s MD HOPE website to learn more about the RFPs.

The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program is a federal funding program that is managed nationally by the nonprofit NeighborWorks America. DHCD applies to NeighborWorks for funding and then distributes that to our Maryland HOPE Counseling network of nonprofit counseling agencies and legal services groups.

An evaluation of foreclosure prevention counseling by the Urban Institute found that homeowners were less likely to default again on their loans after counseling and more likely to reach a sustainable modification of their loan from their lender.

Since the collapse of the national housing market in 2007, Maryland under the leadership of Governor Martin O’Malley and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown has helped more than 75,000 families through the MDHOPE Counseling Network.