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Once again the economy has made a major impact on people’s lives. People are hurt and upset. Some residents of Olney are forced out of their homes because they cannot pay their mortgages and loans. They are unable to pay on account of being unemployed or underemployed. Bills and bills are piling up.
Recently, there have been 125 foreclosures, according to local officials. Fortunately, the Korean Community Development Service Center (KCDC) offers free housing counseling to local residents.
KCDC assists the needs of low- and moderate-income residents. Its housing counseling program helps homebuyers and homeowners obtain the requirements for their mortgage, sort out any financial problems, avoid becoming victims of predatory lending practices and keep residents’ homes from being foreclosed.
For the past three years, the Office of Housing and Community Development of the City of Philadelphia has provided funding to KCDC’s housing department.
Located at 6055 N. Fifth St., the housing waiting room was filled with customers. Some of them have been waiting for over an hour.
“We are here to get help with our financial issues. My husband and I fell back on our mortgage. We are not the only ones. I have seen a lot of other people going through the same thing,” said Ramona Thomas, a local homeowner.
Customers started to get restless from waiting so long to meet with their housing counselors. The receptionist at the desk told the group that it would be a few minutes longer. Sighs and grunts were uttered throughout the room.
Stephen Guest, a struggling homeowner, expressed his frustration on housing and housing counseling.
“It is real personal. It does not just affect you, it affects your family. You can work your whole life trying to get somewhere but, the housing industry is geared towards hurting us,” Guest said.
The KCDC housing department said residents have received a city grant of $800 per homebuyer to help maintain their loans and mortgages.
However, Guest said he has never received any grants.
“We have not been given any grants. We have loans and we have to pay them back. We just want our home that is all. Am I angry? Yes. Do I show it? No. It is an ugly situation and an ugly conversation,” Guest said.
Michael Rapaport, KCDC’s housing counselor, explained his role and what KCDC housing counseling does for the community.
“I deal primarily with foreclosures. We help people who are at risk of losing their homes. Most individuals are seeking to get a work out from their mortgage company, so that they can reduce their interest rate or extend their terms of mortgage,” Rapaport said.
Rapaport also explained homebuyers did not know what they were signing. Their loans were never structured to be paid back.
“The downturn in the market was due to a lot of predatory lending and had unscrupulous lenders and brokers giving people who could ill afford mortgages. But in reality homebuyers were not able to afford it. I have seen elderly people with 14 percent interest rates in a time when interest rates were around six percent. They did not know what they were signing,” Rapaport said.
Guest and other residents felt cheated by the lenders and brokers.
“Investors and bankers are living large. We, the working class people, are working everyday to have a roof over our heads, trying to keep our homes and be legal citizens,” Guest said.
The tension in the waiting room was heating up. Residents were nodding their heads and agreeing to Guest’s comments.
“Finance is a huge problem and so, is unemployment,” Thomas said.
The KCDC housing counseling’s mission is to advise people the best they can, which residents had mixed responses towards the overall process.
“[Rapaport] and other counselors have helped us a lot. Our financial situation is in process and things are beginning to clear. But, it is a slow process,” Thomas said.
Guest, on the other hand, had a different outlook.
“You can ask experts how the housing is going, but they are not really going to say too much because their jobs are on the line. We’re stuck. There is no one else we can turn to. Who really cares? Who wants to live on the streets? We have been working 23 years to keep our home and no one is here to help you,” Guest said.
The KCDC housing counseling has resolved some homeowner’s financial crisis, but there are many cases left, like Guest, to be determined.
The economy and the “unscrupulous lenders and brokers” have made a messy housing disaster for Olney residents.
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