NACA Continues Promising Mortgages Despite BBB Complaints
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA, promises to help struggling homeowners save their houses from foreclosure. But are those promises kept?
This weekend NACA will stage one of the organization's Save the Dream events in Charlotte. At a similar event in Columbia, S.C., earlier this year, 30,000 people showed up looking for assistance.
"We're the one shining light in the country when it comes to foreclosure prevention and restructuring mortgages to make them affordable," said NACA CEO Bruce Marks at a news conference to announce the Charlotte event.
But the president of the Better Business Bureau in Charlotte, Tom Bartholomy, said that is a bit overstated.
"There's nothing that they do that is more special than any other mortgage broker or lender will do for you," Bartholomy said.
In Charlotte, the BBB has logged 5 complaints against NACA. Nationally, there have been 63 complaints.
"At the end of it all, it comes down to that what they promised going in, they weren't getting at the end of it all," said Bartholomy.
Because NACA has helped thousands of satisfied homeowners across the country, the number of complaints is relatively small, so the BBB still gives NACA a B+ rating.
Katoma Cardwell was a NACA employee until he turned up at the news conference Tuesday afternoon. He admits he is in a pay dispute with the organization but also wanted to question CEO Marks about his claims.
"He is trying to distort what type of success NACA is currently able to provide for their members," Cardwell said.
Security guards barred Cardwell from going inside, telling him he had been fired.
A NACA executive who came outside told Cardwell, "Obviously you are attacking the organization so you can go through human resources to discuss anything further."
NewsChannel 36 questioned Marks about Cardwell's claims. Marks said, "There are some people that want to make a name for themselves by being on the media but we are focused on getting the job done."
Some still waiting after NACA's promise to struggling homeowners
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA, stopped in the Midlands in March as part of their "Save The Dream" tour that promised struggling homeowners that their mortgages would be lowered and their interest rate cut.
"For all the homeowners who are here, we are going to get this done. We're going to get this done," said NACA's Bruce Marks.
Four months later, some are still waiting on that dream to come true.
Karen Long is paying $2,000 a month for her mortgage. To say she is over her head is an understatement, so like thousands of others, she waited in line for more than 10 hours for help.
"At the end of the day they did give us a recommendation to reduce our mortgage rate from 11% to 3% and more than cut our mortgage payment in half," she recalls.
Excited about saving her home, Karen waited patiently by the phone and mailbox for the change in her rate.
"Four months later, and I have not received one telephone call from NACA since then," says Karen. "I'm so concerned right now because we are a little behind, and if NACA's not going to do what they said they could do, let me know."
We called NACA and asked what they had to say about her problem.
Darren Duarte said, "When we have something to tell her, we will get back to her and say, 'here's your loan restructured.' Just because she doesn't hear back from someone A) doesn't mean we aren't working on her solution and B) that we are not working hard to get her done."
The federally funded company's CEO motivated crowds of people, including Karen, flanked by South Carolina political heavyweights beginning with Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, Congressman John Spratt and the third highest ranking member of the house, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.
We asked Clyburn if he has heard of any complaints in his office. Clyburn said, "Sure, but not near the success stories I've heard."
Clyburn says he heard one of those success stories just days ago, "I got my letter this week. I finally got my letter this week. Thank you so much. I drove all the way from Edisto. I didn't think it would come through, but it came through this week."
It's a story, Karen says, that doesn't seem to be a reality for her at this time.
"I asked my mortgage lender whether NACA had contacted them, and they said no. And that was in early June," she says.
According to Darren Duarte, "She should contact me and I will find out why they haven't responded with an approval or a denial."
You can count on WISTV to continue to work with Karen long to find out what is going on with her mortgage.
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Sources: WCNC, WISTV, NACA, Youtube, Google Maps
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