Issues for the Booker Campaign
Community Spotlight: Focus on Foreclosures
In this section we will regularly delve into an issue that concerns Newarkers and discuss my administration's and the City of Newark's actions on that front. For this installment, we'll look into the foreclosure crisis and how we're helping families keep their homes.
Hope for Newark’s Housing
While the mortgage crisis has claimed millions of homes across America, success stories are on the rise throughout Newark’s communities. After facing imminent foreclosure, the Davises, an elderly couple living on Newark’s Lehigh Avenue, have recently been able to secure an affordable, restructured loan after reaching out to the City for help. Their efforts helped rescue a home that has been in the Davis family for over sixty years.
Episcopal Community Development (ECD), a community development organization operating in Newark, offered invaluable assistance. The ECD coordinated an appraisal of the Davis property, and through vigorous contact with the Davis’ loan provider was able to obtain approval for a restructured loan that had previously been denied on numerous occasions. In addition to keeping their home, the Davises are currently working with a counselor at ECD to help maintain financial security in the future.
Stories like the Davis’s are becoming increasingly prevalent in Newark largely as a result of the Booker Administration’s recent creation of a task force designed to prevent unnecessary foreclosures and manage the broader housing crisis. Since its installation, the Newark/Urban Essex Foreclosure Task Force has assembled 35 of the top nonprofit housing counseling agencies and legal service providers in a cooperative effort to end the irresponsible lending practices that threaten the stability of Newark’s communities. To date, hundreds of families like the Davises have welcomed the services of Task Force organizations such as Episcopal Community Development in efforts to renegotiate loan terms and avoid forfeiting their cherished homes.
The Task Force has additional goals and programs outside of direct foreclosure prevention. A major Task Force operation seeks to generate awareness of the numerous scam agencies that currently operate in desperate communities. A recent “Neighborhood Preservation Patrol” outreach event brought over 150 people together to distribute fliers and remove illegal “We Buy Houses” signs that advertise fraudulent businesses simply seeking to capitalize on distressed homeowners and further harm their financial situations. Moreover, efforts are progressively being directed toward rehabilitation of vacant houses that are key targets for metal-stripping resulting in concerns about safety and quality of life in certain communities.
Although foreclosures are becoming an increasingly inevitable product of the difficult economic conditions in America, there is hope in Newark. The Davis story is just one example illustrating how even seemingly inescapable misfortune can be avoided in Newark with the help of the City’s response in collaboration with nonprofit organizations. By providing counseling support, legal aid and assistance for displaced families, the Task Force has proven to be a vital avenue for anxious homeowners in Newark.
Contact the Newark/Urban Essex Foreclosure Task Force:
foreclosuretaskforce@yahoo.com
973-733-3928
973-733-5915
