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."
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.
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."
My question to NACA and Bruce Marks is , "Is this about numbers and bringing in the money or saving homes?"
It looks like this is the new nightmare trend for homeowners who are not getting help from their mortgage servicers. Trying to do the right thing, struggling homeowners are now entangled in a never ending web of Non-Profit disservice.
Again my question to NACA and Bruce Marks is , "Is this about numbers and bringing in the money or saving homes?"
That’s a simple question dude and you better pay attention. The complaints I have received about NACA and these conventions where I have personally seen thousands and thousands of homeowners NOT get help at these events proves the latter. I know this for a fact and have held my blogging tongue far too long.
You see Bruce Marks is or was a friend of mine. (probably the latter after this blog post) It seems like when I started asking Mr. Marks and Darren Duarte his marketing man about helping these past clients and making legitimate complaints as caused him to consider me a foe. That is simply not true. I am here on this earth to do what is right and to tell the truth before honoring false friendships.
What do I mean by this?
Well, NACA has embarked on what I call a "Foreclosure Rock Tour" promoting their brand of home saving techniques as the Holy Grail of loan modifications. Bruce Marks, the self anointed Moses of mortgage restructuring for homeowners has been quoted several times in media publications claiming that his organization has an 80% success rate.
Well, I have news for Main Street and NACA may not like it. I have actually been invited to two of these Save the Dream conventions by Bruce Marks personally. In early 2008 to Washington DC and later in Hartford Connecticut to stay in hotels, protest and march in Washington DC.
I can say with 110% accuracy that this is 110% false, a lie and I have many homeowners witnesses to prove this fact.
Yes, this is a marketing lie and there in no way in loan modification hell that they are attaining these numbers. I saw thousands of homeowners leave these events discouraged and not helped daily. Now, the NACA complaints I receive daily in my forum have increased 10 fold. Some homeowner have been with the organization for 1-2 years with very little help and terrible service.
I’m confused NACA and Bruce. Is a homeowner who needs help from the past different from a homeowner that goes to these conventions? Why are you discarding these thousands and thousands of homeowners in your database that can’t get help or answers.
Many of their mortgage servicers will not work with these people because they have been told that since they work with NACA, they have to work with NACA. To put it quite simply, these homeowners seen F’d by NACA and left all alone to die a slow, painful foreclosure death while you do rock tours and media interviews.
My question to the Federal Trade Commission is, “Don’t non-profits have to abide by the same laws that regular corporations or business operate under?”
NACA has a huge database of over 300-500,000 homeowner clients from the past that have not been helped are simply getting neglected. All the while NACA and Bruce Marks hold conventions with these employees who should be helping these past clients.
This is not how these Federal funds for foreclosure prevention are supposed to be used Mr. Marks and you know this. Consider this your official warning that you will be watched and reported on for failing to do what is right many times in running NACA. Maybe an investigation by legal authorities will curb this abuse of tax payer dollars and make NACA help past clients?
Don’t become the next Acorn Mr. Marks.
Change your ways now or I will make sure they are brought to public light and these homeowner stories told. Below are some of the true homeowner stories told in my LoanSafe.org/forum and on this blog in regards to their experiences with NACA.
Don’t believe me? These homeowner commenter’s left their real names and maybe NACA should look in that 500,000 homeowner database and locate them. That’s if you can.
Karen Long July 17, 2009 at 8:58 am
I read the article that you wrote in reference to NACA helping people with their mortgages. I attended the “Save the Dream” tour in Columbia, SC this past March. I was one of the thousands that sat in the coliseum for 16 hours & all I have received is lip service. There are 15 people in my church that NACA is supposedly working with, and none of us has received any assistance. NACA doesn’t respond to faxes, emails or phone messages. 4 months later and I have not received any help and NACA will not return my phone calls. I have only received 1 telephone call from NACA in 4 months.
In the article it stated that people can “walk out the same day with a new mortgage”. This is simple not true, irregardless of what Bruce Marks of NACA is saying.
I am most concerned because NACA is taking the “Save the Dream” tour to eight more states starting this week. They haven’t completed the backlog from Columbia, SC. Why would they take on more clients? A representative from NACA told me that each NACA negotiator has 5000 clients. This has become a hopeless and frustrating experience.
It appears that while NACA has helped a few people, they are giving false hope to many others.
Michael Ormandy August 5, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Ok, how about his story being worth “investigating”. Let’s talk about NACA. I went to their offices 2 1/2 months ago WITH ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION and gave them every single thing they required, first day. We were told it takes 6-8 weeks to get the new loan closed and not to cal NACA, only to email.
They would call us, we were told. After 1 1/2 months and not a PEEP from them or the lender we called many times and finally got someone on the phone who said call back in two weeks. We called back at the two month mark, and were told by a message they no longer had people to answer the phones, to leave a message. Weeks later, no call back. No responses to emails. Two missed mortgage payments, a threatening lender, and nobody to communicate with. The bank acts like they know nothing about it, though NACA said the one time we talked to them that they submitted everything to the bank.
Bottom line: DO NOT USE NACA.
They have horrible / non-existent communications, so you don’t know what is going on, and I have yet to talk to one human being in person who was actually helped by them. All I see is a well orchestrated PR campaign via the internet, and a bunch of “success stories” on internet web pages. Spend the money, hire an attorney, which is who I will be meeting with tomorrow.
Deborah October 11, 2009 at 11:58 pm
NACA is taking on too much and the result is people are getting bad assistance/no assistance. After we went through the entire application with them in April we never heard from them again. In fact, I think the Minneapolis office must have closed. No one else around the country will return our calls. We finally had to re-submit everything again with Wells Fargo. They put us off until we finally had our state attorney general contact them and then they just simply refused to help us. Thanks for nothing NACA! Why do they continue to carry out these campaigns and get more people asking for their assistance if they can’t deal with what they have going on right now.
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.
Despite receiving taxpayer money, NACA doesn’t provide public reports on either its loan-brokerage business or its campaign to modify mortgages. Jim Campen, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, says he tried in the 1990s to analyze the performance of loans arranged by NACA, but Mr. Marks refused to provide data.
Mr. Marks says he feared the data would be used by another nonprofit to discredit his group. NACA does provide information to lenders that work with it, he says, but sees no duty to disclose it to the public.
“He’s been very effective in shaking money out of the banks,” says Mr. Campen, but “he’s not one to open up his records to public scrutiny.”Wall Street Journal Article dated * May 20, 2009
It started this past July 31st and went through August 3rd, and 40,000 very nervous homeowners waited in long lines in the hopes of saving their dreams.
One woman, a 46 year-old single mom who had lost her job, fallen behind on her bills, but was working again, waited apprehensively to find out if her lender, Wells Fargo, would modify her loan or throw her out in the street. (I know that’s a harsh way of putting it, but I’ve decided that there’s been enough soft pedaling on this point.)
The event was yet another brought to homeowners by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA for short. The event’s brochure promised “Same Day Solutions” for homeowners who would get their loan modifications approved on the spot by many of the largest lenders and servicers in the country.
Bank representatives, dressed in their golf shirts with embroidered bank logos, would be on hand and would get things done for homeowners on a while you wait basis. NACA, a nonprofit based in Boston would be there with hundreds of housing counselors.
Wow. When I first heard about this whole “Save the Dream” thing, I thought it sounded absolutely fabulous.
When our single mom left the event that day she felt terrific. She was confident that her home would now be saved. A NACA housing counselor had reviewed her financial documents, and then she had met with a representative from Wells Fargo, who had agreed to modify her loan, taking her interest rate down from 6.375 to 4.375, and cutting her payment by more than $200 a month. Wells also agreed to a forbearance agreement that would allow her to skip the next six payments, and tack the amount onto the back end of the loan.
She was so happy.
The Wells Fargo representative couldn’t give her a written agreement, but it was a direct contact with her lender, and she watched as the representative wrote her name down along with her phone number and the promised interest rate… right on her NACA workbook.
She was so happy.
Fast forward to September 22nd, eight weeks later when she received a letter from Wells Fargo that specified very different terms than she was promised. In the letter it said that at the end of a six-month moratorium on payments, she would have to pay a balloon payment of all six payments missed.
So, as you might expect, our single mom tried to call her Wells Fargo representative at the number she had been given while she was saving her dream two months earlier… but she was never put through to her. Instead, Wells Fargo now told her to stand by… because Wells would be contacting her in a few months, at which time she could apply for a loan modification! And even better, Wells now said that it had no record of the agreed to interest rate reduction.
So, next she called NACA, left voice mails and sent emails but never got a response. And wouldn’t you know it… the identification number that she was given to track her file online on the NACA website didn’t work. Darn the luck.
So, now our single mom is concerned. She’s facing a balloon payment in January and is once again scared that she will lose her home… the home she purchased in 2002 with a 20% down payment…. the home in which she has close to 50% equity, but can’t refinance because of her credit score.
Now she’s angry. Very angry, I would think.
Here’s what she told the St. Louis Beacon:
“I’m angry at both the bank and the organization — Wells Fargo and NACA. Is the idea of ’scam’ in my mind? Yes. And that’s a quick turnaround for me. But, it was a very difficult 40-minute call I had with the bank — to see what I thought was a gift, of sorts, a break, just kind of disintegrate.”
NACA’s CEO is Bruce Marks, and he’s known for his outrageous acts in defiance of banks. I read about the guy and frankly, had to like him. For a while, he was delivering old, crummy furniture to the front lawns of bank executives on weekends. Pretty cool, right? Now I’m not so sure.
When Bruce was asked for numbers on how many St. Louis homeowners have received loan modifications and how many are in some sort of pending status, all he would say is that “it’s a rolling number”. It’s apparently a number that rolls. Bruce went on to say that that the focus would be on completing pending cases before the tour would resume in Los Angeles in late September. The “vast majority” will be completed by the end of this week, he told the St. Louis Beacon.
Were they? I don’t know. I can’t find any published numbers anywhere. I sure hope “the vast majority” of the 40,000 people that attended the NACA “Save the Dream” event… had their dream saved.
But I’m skeptical. Because when you consider that, according to the administration’s report cards that were published on August 9th, Bank of America only modified 4% of its eligible loans. Bank of America is the country’s largest mortgage holder, so it seems hard to imagine that the “vast majority” of 40,000 homeowners could save a dream out of that 4%. Maybe I’m not getting the math right.
At least NACA provides their housing counselor services FREE! That’s right, they don’t charge any of those distasteful up front fees everyone is so concerned about. Nope, NACA gets their money the old fashioned way… from the taxpayers… well, from the government who gets their money from the taxpayers. In fact, NACA recently got $16 million in government funding to provide housing counselors to distressed homeowners. But that’s not considered an up front fee, I suppose. So, you see… that’s free right there.
Oh, and one more thing… just for fun I looked up NACA on the Better Business Bureau Website and guess what? You guessed it… an ‘F’.
NACA’s Save the Dream? Or just another government funded nightmare?
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."
Despite receiving taxpayer money, NACA doesn’t provide public reports on either its loan-brokerage business or its campaign to modify mortgages. Jim Campen, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, says he tried in the 1990s to analyze the performance of loans arranged by NACA, but Mr. Marks refused to provide data.
Mr. Marks says he feared the data would be used by another nonprofit to discredit his group. NACA does provide information to lenders that work with it, he says, but sees no duty to disclose it to the public.
“He’s been very effective in shaking money out of the banks,” says Mr. Campen, but “he’s not one to open up his records to public scrutiny.”Wall Street Journal Article dated * May 20, 2009
It started this past July 31st and went through August 3rd, and 40,000 very nervous homeowners waited in long lines in the hopes of saving their dreams.
One woman, a 46 year-old single mom who had lost her job, fallen behind on her bills, but was working again, waited apprehensively to find out if her lender, Wells Fargo, would modify her loan or throw her out in the street. (I know that’s a harsh way of putting it, but I’ve decided that there’s been enough soft pedaling on this point.)
The event was yet another brought to homeowners by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA for short. The event’s brochure promised “Same Day Solutions” for homeowners who would get their loan modifications approved on the spot by many of the largest lenders and servicers in the country.
Bank representatives, dressed in their golf shirts with embroidered bank logos, would be on hand and would get things done for homeowners on a while you wait basis. NACA, a nonprofit based in Boston would be there with hundreds of housing counselors.
Wow. When I first heard about this whole “Save the Dream” thing, I thought it sounded absolutely fabulous.
When our single mom left the event that day she felt terrific. She was confident that her home would now be saved. A NACA housing counselor had reviewed her financial documents, and then she had met with a representative from Wells Fargo, who had agreed to modify her loan, taking her interest rate down from 6.375 to 4.375, and cutting her payment by more than $200 a month. Wells also agreed to a forbearance agreement that would allow her to skip the next six payments, and tack the amount onto the back end of the loan.
She was so happy.
The Wells Fargo representative couldn’t give her a written agreement, but it was a direct contact with her lender, and she watched as the representative wrote her name down along with her phone number and the promised interest rate… right on her NACA workbook.
She was so happy.
Fast forward to September 22nd, eight weeks later when she received a letter from Wells Fargo that specified very different terms than she was promised. In the letter it said that at the end of a six-month moratorium on payments, she would have to pay a balloon payment of all six payments missed.
So, as you might expect, our single mom tried to call her Wells Fargo representative at the number she had been given while she was saving her dream two months earlier… but she was never put through to her. Instead, Wells Fargo now told her to stand by… because Wells would be contacting her in a few months, at which time she could apply for a loan modification! And even better, Wells now said that it had no record of the agreed to interest rate reduction.
So, next she called NACA, left voice mails and sent emails but never got a response. And wouldn’t you know it… the identification number that she was given to track her file online on the NACA website didn’t work. Darn the luck.
So, now our single mom is concerned. She’s facing a balloon payment in January and is once again scared that she will lose her home… the home she purchased in 2002 with a 20% down payment…. the home in which she has close to 50% equity, but can’t refinance because of her credit score.
Now she’s angry. Very angry, I would think.
Here’s what she told the St. Louis Beacon:
“I’m angry at both the bank and the organization — Wells Fargo and NACA. Is the idea of ’scam’ in my mind? Yes. And that’s a quick turnaround for me. But, it was a very difficult 40-minute call I had with the bank — to see what I thought was a gift, of sorts, a break, just kind of disintegrate.”
NACA’s CEO is Bruce Marks, and he’s known for his outrageous acts in defiance of banks. I read about the guy and frankly, had to like him. For a while, he was delivering old, crummy furniture to the front lawns of bank executives on weekends. Pretty cool, right? Now I’m not so sure.
When Bruce was asked for numbers on how many St. Louis homeowners have received loan modifications and how many are in some sort of pending status, all he would say is that “it’s a rolling number”. It’s apparently a number that rolls. Bruce went on to say that that the focus would be on completing pending cases before the tour would resume in Los Angeles in late September. The “vast majority” will be completed by the end of this week, he told the St. Louis Beacon.
Were they? I don’t know. I can’t find any published numbers anywhere. I sure hope “the vast majority” of the 40,000 people that attended the NACA “Save the Dream” event… had their dream saved.
But I’m skeptical. Because when you consider that, according to the administration’s report cards that were published on August 9th, Bank of America only modified 4% of its eligible loans. Bank of America is the country’s largest mortgage holder, so it seems hard to imagine that the “vast majority” of 40,000 homeowners could save a dream out of that 4%. Maybe I’m not getting the math right.
At least NACA provides their housing counselor services FREE! That’s right, they don’t charge any of those distasteful up front fees everyone is so concerned about. Nope, NACA gets their money the old fashioned way… from the taxpayers… well, from the government who gets their money from the taxpayers. In fact, NACA recently got $16 million in government funding to provide housing counselors to distressed homeowners. But that’s not considered an up front fee, I suppose. So, you see… that’s free right there.
Oh, and one more thing… just for fun I looked up NACA on the Better Business Bureau Website and guess what? You guessed it… an ‘F’. Uh oh.
NACA’s Save the Dream? Or just another government funded nightmare?
Home prices up, more borrowers Underwater. CNBC's Diana Olick reports that while home prices show a slight gain, about 25 percent of homeowners owe more on their mortgages than they are worth.
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."
Despite receiving taxpayer money, NACA doesn’t provide public reports on either its loan-brokerage business or its campaign to modify mortgages. Jim Campen, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, says he tried in the 1990s to analyze the performance of loans arranged by NACA, but Mr. Marks refused to provide data.
Mr. Marks says he feared the data would be used by another nonprofit to discredit his group. NACA does provide information to lenders that work with it, he says, but sees no duty to disclose it to the public.
“He’s been very effective in shaking money out of the banks,” says Mr. Campen, but “he’s not one to open up his records to public scrutiny.”Wall Street Journal Article dated * May 20, 2009
The promise of help is bringing thousands of people to Charlotte looking for ways to cut their payments and stay in their homes.
“This is it. This is our last chance. This is what we came here for,” said LuLu Hernandez.
The Hernadez family traveled more than 1,300 miles to spend the night in the cold, but they say when it’s the last effort to save your home, it’s worth it.
“It means the world to us. It’s this or lose it,” Hernandez said.
On the verge of losing their home, the Hernandezes, along with thousands of others, are seeking the help of the non-profit group Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America or NACA.
“We’re restructuring loans for people. If you have unaffordable mortgage we’re documenting and verifying that and then we’re submitting that to your lender. If your lender is here, there’s a good chance you’ll get a lower payment today,” a NACA representative told us.
“We don’ t have a plan B. We don’t,” Hernandez said.
The service is free. If you need help the event runs through Monday. Representatives will be there each day between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at The Park, which is the old Charlotte Merchandise Mart.
The Park is crammed with computer terminals--nearly 300 of them. There are no less than 4,000 chairs set up in the building.
Of the people we talked to, some said they had to get the paperwork to their lenders and the others said they were able to save $200-$700 off their monthly mortgage payment.
Last week, the US Treasury reported that only 9% of eligible homeowners had been helped by the Obama Administration's Making Home Affordable program. The government-sponsored loan modification program provides incentives for lenders to modify struggling homeowner's mortgages so they can avoid foreclosure -- which is not only devastating for families, but costly to banks.
Five months into the Making Home Affordable program, 235,247 trial modifications are underway. A US Treasury Dept press release claims the program is "on pace" to provide assistance to 3-4 million homeowners before the end of 2012.
But since the program was rolled out February 19th, the federal government has twice had to lean on banks to pick up the pace on loan modifications -- on July 9 and again on July 28 -- and this most recent report admits that performance among various banks has been "uneven."
Eleven of the 25 largest participating banks are helping under five percent of Americans headed toward foreclosure. The Bank of America -- recipient of $45 billion in bailout funds -- is helping less than four percent of qualified borrowers.
Some of the shortcomings the report acknowledged -- "quality of borrower experience, such as average borrower wait time for inbound inquiries, completeness and accuracy of information provided applicants, and response time for completed applications" -- are problems we've heard from dozens of HuffPost readers who have written in with their stories.
At this point, the overwhelming backlog means that homeowners who filed paperwork months ago are still being told to wait...and wait, and wait. Sandy Smith from Green Forest, Arkansas has been dealing with the mortgage modification quagmire for nearly five months.
The Treasury figures report that nine percent of qualified borrowers have received trial loan mods, but that nine percent doesn't even include homeowners like Sandy, who have struggled to make ends meet while keeping up with their mortgage payments. The Making Home Affordable program includes a provision for homeowners who are not yet delinquent in their payments but are in "imminent default" -- are on the brink of falling behind -- but the figures provided by the Treasury show loan servicer success rates as percentages of borrowers who are at least 60 days delinquent on their loans.
Sandy bought a $130,000 house in 2002 and received a fixed-rate mortgage with $20,000 down. But recently, with the cost of living up in addition to several unexpected expenses, Sandy found it was becoming more and more difficult to stretch her monthly retirement check to cover her mortgage payments.
In April, she called the customer service number on her mortgage bill and asked if she could refinance to lower monthly payments. She explained that she was looking for information about refinancing but didn't want to do anything to hurt her credit rating:
I was told that a refinance would result in the same or higher monthly payments. I then called my insurance company -- which also provides loans -- and got the same response.
I then thought maybe I should check Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to see if there was anything there that could help. When I went to Fannie Mae website, I found a short questionnaire to be filled out to see if I qualified for assistance. The answer was that I qualified for the Affordable Home program. Sandy faxed in the forms and information for the Home Affordable program on April 27:
On May 15, I finally reached a human at the end of the telephone tree. I spoke to Norma who then transferred me to Barbara. Barbara, in turn, transferred to Pat who then passed me on to Douglas. At which point I was told they have had a lot of applications and was given a number to call back next week. I called the number given on May 18 and again encountered a phone tree. I finally arrived at the extension of Mr. Morgan who told me to be patient, they have received a lot of inquiries, and they would get back to me.
June 4, I called and talked to Pat who said it would take two to two and half weeks to hear anything. He said was it was taking 60-90 days to process applications.
On June 23, I talked to Thomas who transferred me to Natasha who said it was taking 30 to 45 business days to process applications.
On June 30, I reached Chuck who transferred me to Tiffany who transferred me to Nadine, who transferred me to Jackie. Jackie said I needed to fax my homeowner's insurance declaration, current insurance bill, current bank statements (the previous ones were out of date), and a copy of my divorce decree which showed I was entitled to receive half of a military retirement, and my last year's tax return. I faxed the information the same day.
I called on July 11 to see if they had received the papers and what my status was. Cassandra said they received the updated information and it would take a few more weeks.
On July 27, I figured we had reached 90 days, so I called again. Coralinda transferred me to Jolene who said that I needed to resubmit the form I sent on April 27 which gave permission for them to receive my past three years tax returns. Apparently the form is only good for 90 days so they need a new one. There are also new forms included in the application packet which I need to fill out. She suggested that, while I was at it, I might as well include new current banks statements and utility bill as the previously submitted ones would also expire.
When I opened my mail late in the day on the 27th, I found the following from Chase dated July 6:
Thank you for your recent request for a loan modification on your mortgage account (indicated above). We are sending this letter to let you know that we are actively reviewing your request and will be following up within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter.
Please keep in mind that your modification request, like all loan workout options, requires full underwriting review and approval. If your modification is approved, we will send you a formal agreement to sigh.
At Chase, our goal is to provide thorough and accurate service for every customer. We greatly appreciate your patience as we complete the review process. We value you as a customer and look forward to helping your with your financial needs.
Sandy faxed the documents for the third time on August 3. In a follow-up call a few days later, another representative told her they had received the paperwork, and it would be processed within the 90-120 days.
Sources: WCNC, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, ABC News, Huffington Post, Newsbusters, MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, Making Home Affordable.gov, NACA, Loan Safe.org, Youtube, Google Maps
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