Check out this awesome Huffington Post profile of an amazing woman, Jennifer Ngai, an attorney and Equal Justice Works Americorps Legal Fellow at the Legal Aid Society, who specializes in helping low-income D.C. homeowners navigate the confusing and frustrating system of home loan modifications: A Young Lawyer's Fight To Save The Homes Of Low-Income Families.The fact of the matter is, the assistance for homeowners is out there, but it can be damn near impossible for the average person to make it through the maze of calls and faxes and paperwork and contradictory information. It's a minefield of people giving you the runaround. That's where Jennifer comes in to kick some ass:
A lot of my clients belong to this very specific population of being very low income, where if they lost their house, they would truly be at the very bottom of the poverty level and they could not afford to rent," Jennifer said. "I have clients who have very, very low mortgages and defy many of the stereotypes that I think a lot of people in foreclosure are judged by." Jennifer said clients have been brought to foreclosure owing as little as $2000. "Frankly, the bank doesn't care what the dollar amount is," she added.This woman sounds amazing. She's got the experience, understanding and legal know-how to make her way through this ridiculous system, and she's using that knowledge to help the people who really need it. Basically, she's what's standing in the way of families going homeless. Big props.
Jennifer said her most representative case involved working with a home owner who lost her job at a department store and realized that she wouldn't be able to make the $500 monthly payments on her home equity loan. But because her husband had a large enough salary, she qualified for a modification. "She tried, but every time she called, she got different information," Jennifer said. When Jennifer got involved, the family were just a week from losing their home, pulling their daughter out of school and finding another place to live.
"We had to put up a fight," she said. But in the end, they got the interest rate and payments lowered to an affordable level, and the term extended to 30 years. "They were able to carry on with their lives," Jennifer said.