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Get out your pens and pencils because it’s time for another this Friday the 13th edition of Tip of the Day! This video features Eric Madkins, Director of Housing and Foreclosure Intervention, for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Karen Wallensak, Director of the Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center. They recommend for homeowners who are in trouble with their mortgage to seek help from trusted housing counseling agencies. To get connected to these agencies you can call the United Way’s 2-1-1 information referral service at 1-800-427-4626 or visit their website at www.211missouri.com.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRI-sEjjBXM&hl=en&fs=1]

If you or someone you know is having trouble making their mortgage payment or needs some type of financial counseling assistance please call the United Way’s 2-1-1 referral service at 1-800-427-4626 or visit their website at www.211missouri.org.

For Financial Counseling assistance you can click on the link here Clearpoint Financial Solutions or call them at 1-877-422-9040.

For Housing Counseling assistance please click on this link here and call the agency closest to you. Or call the United Way’s 2-1-1 referral service at 1-800-427-4626

For Fraud Assistance please contact the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office at 314-612-1412 or e-mail them at rechtiend@stlouiscao.org.

For mental health support go to www.providentstl.org or call their crisis hotline at 314-647-HELP (4357) or their toll-free number at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

For other a variety of services contact the Salvation Army, Midland Division visit their website or call them at 314-646-3000.

For support that includes food and utility services contact the Human Development Corporation of St. Louis by clicking here or calling them at 314-613-2200.

November 3, 2008

Eric Madkins, of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, is a certified HUD housing counselor and the Director of Housing and Foreclosure Intervention. In this post he talks about the importance of being proactive in addressing your mortgage situtation:

The housing market has seen many ups and downs as home values continue to decrease, which leaves many homeowners with negative equity. Recently, a lot of borrowers that we encounter often ask, “Will the market ever reach the bottom?”  The answer is somewhat esoteric at this point, because there really isn’t a specific date or timeline for the end or the beginning of a turnaround. However, in the meantime, based on experience in working with hundreds of lenders and loan services, homeowners do have options, if they are having difficulties making their mortgage payments.

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October 1, 2008

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a Facing the Mortgage Crisis project partner, teamed up with the Minneapolis and Chicago Federal Reserve Banks to put on a seminar called “Neighborhood Stabilization in Weak Markets.” The seminar, though open to the public, filled up quickly, a testament to the timeliness of the conference and importance of the issue.

Among the attendees was another Facing the Mortgage Crisis project partner, Mike Duncan of the St. Louis County Department of Planning, who I spoke to about his experience. Mike was effusive in his praise of the conference, which he described as timely in light of the soon-to-be released HUD guidelines for Neighborhood Stabilization grants. The conference featured innovative presentations and state of the art methods for addressing the issue of neighborhood stabilization. He hopes that the conference will help the state and local government officials who attended to use their grant money in effective ways to maximize its benefit to the community.

The conference is part of the Federal Reserve System’s Recovery, Renewal and Rebuilding series, which you can learn more about at:

http://www.stlouisfed.org/RRRseries/

I also spoke to Matt Ashby of the St. Louis Federal Reserve about not only the conference, which was a great success, but also about what the bank is doing on a regular basis on issues related to the mortgage crisis. The bank takes a three-pronged approach to the crisis: mitigating, preventing, and intervening. To learn more about what the St. Louis branch is doing on the mortgage crisis, check out their new Foreclosure Resource Center at:

http://www.stlouisfed.org/foreclosure/default.html

The Fed also plays a supervisory role in this crisis, so Matt was excited to get the word out about new regulations that help the Fed to prevent mortgage fraud and protect consumers. These regulations were developed based on the Truth in Lending Act. They tighten restrictions on lenders so that they are required to check on basic things like whether a person has the ability to pay back their loans. To learn more about the new regulations, check out the press release at:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20080714a.htm

September 30, 2008

This week, Marketplace—public radio’s daily magazine show on business and economics—is visiting Missouri to explore how the deepening financial crisis and find out what’s really happening in the lives of Americans at home, at work, and in the community.

You can hear Marketplace weekdays at 6:00 p.m. on KWMU in St. Louis. But Marketplace wants to hear from you about how are you and your community dealing with the financial crisis? Click here to share your experiences with Marketplace.