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MARCH 2008

National Foreclosure Counseling Training
St. Louis, MO
May 19-23, 2008

FREE TUITION AND HOTEL LODGING FOR QUALIFIED NONPROFIT COUNSELORS!

Attend a week’s worth of valuable training to build and strengthen your foreclosure intervention and default counseling program. Training is open to staff of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations-ONLY. The event is 100% scholarship based which includes registration, tuition and lodging. You pay only for your travel and meals. Application and pre-approval required. No walk-in registrations.

Apply Today at www.nw.org/scholarships and be sure to insert event code NFMC05MO08.

These scholarship-based courses are offered as part of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMC), administered by NeighborWorks® America through the NeighborWorks® Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC).

Select any below combination of courses (equal to 5 days) that best meets your training needs.

Monday
5-19-08
Tuesday
5-20-08
Wednesday
5-21-08
Thursday
5-22-08
Friday
5-23-08

HO345 Foreclosure Intervention and Default Counseling Certification
(An online prerequisite exam is required prior to enrollment in this advanced-level course) If you are planning to take a foreclosure intervention class please review this quick reference guide to ensure that you have the skills and knowledge level required for the advanced level coursework. Access the pre-test by clicking on the course selection above and follow links and instructions.

HO250 Homeownership Counseling Certification (Part 1)
HO109 Foreclosure Basics
HO107 Understanding Credit Scoring
HO211 Credit Counseling for Maximum Results

HO307 Advanced Foreclosure: Case Studies Practicum
HO320 Developing & Implementing an Effective Foreclosure Program

To Apply: To learn more about this event and apply for a scholarship:

Visit www.nw.org/scholarships
Look through the list of training events and find this event under NFMC PBT
Page over to the right and click on “Learn More”
Read the page and click on “Apply to this Scholarship ”
Carefully review Eligibility Criteria and provide ALL requested information
If you have a profile with us, you can apply immediately; if not, you’ll first have to set up an online username and password
When you come to the point of application, please insert event code NFMC05MO08.
The deadline for applications is FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008.

Location details to follow soon. Plan to join us and apply today!

Training is offered through the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. This $180-million effort to increase the availability of foreclosure counseling services across the country has been funded through a congressional appropriation. NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) received a portion of these funds for training of foreclosure counselors through:

The NeighborWorks Training Institute
Regional training events
Place-based training events in partnership with intermediaries and HFAs
The development of an online Foreclosure Basics e-learning course.

For Questions:
Phone: 866-785-4401 · Fax: 202-376-7276 · E-mail: nfmcTraining@nw.org
Subscription Requests | Privacy Policy | www.nw.org/nfmc

Click here to unsubscribe.

MARCH 2008

National Foreclosure Counseling Training
St. Louis, MO
May 19-23, 2008

FREE TUITION AND HOTEL LODGING FOR QUALIFIED NONPROFIT COUNSELORS!

Attend a week’s worth of valuable training to build and strengthen your foreclosure intervention and default counseling program. Training is open to staff of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations-ONLY. The event is 100% scholarship based which includes registration, tuition and lodging. You pay only for your travel and meals. Application and pre-approval required. No walk-in registrations.

Apply Today at www.nw.org/scholarships and be sure to insert event code NFMC05MO08.

These scholarship-based courses are offered as part of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMC), administered by NeighborWorks® America through the NeighborWorks® Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC).

Select any below combination of courses (equal to 5 days) that best meets your training needs.

Monday
5-19-08
Tuesday
5-20-08
Wednesday
5-21-08
Thursday
5-22-08
Friday
5-23-08

HO345 Foreclosure Intervention and Default Counseling Certification
(An online prerequisite exam is required prior to enrollment in this advanced-level course) If you are planning to take a foreclosure intervention class please review this quick reference guide to ensure that you have the skills and knowledge level required for the advanced level coursework. Access the pre-test by clicking on the course selection above and follow links and instructions.

HO250 Homeownership Counseling Certification (Part 1)
HO109 Foreclosure Basics
HO107 Understanding Credit Scoring
HO211 Credit Counseling for Maximum Results

HO307 Advanced Foreclosure: Case Studies Practicum
HO320 Developing & Implementing an Effective Foreclosure Program

To Apply: To learn more about this event and apply for a scholarship:

Visit www.nw.org/scholarships
Look through the list of training events and find this event under NFMC PBT
Page over to the right and click on “Learn More”
Read the page and click on “Apply to this Scholarship ”
Carefully review Eligibility Criteria and provide ALL requested information
If you have a profile with us, you can apply immediately; if not, you’ll first have to set up an online username and password
When you come to the point of application, please insert event code NFMC05MO08.
The deadline for applications is FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008.

Location details to follow soon. Plan to join us and apply today!

Training is offered through the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. This $180-million effort to increase the availability of foreclosure counseling services across the country has been funded through a congressional appropriation. NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) received a portion of these funds for training of foreclosure counselors through:

The NeighborWorks Training Institute
Regional training events
Place-based training events in partnership with intermediaries and HFAs
The development of an online Foreclosure Basics e-learning course.

For Questions:
Phone: 866-785-4401 · Fax: 202-376-7276 · E-mail: nfmcTraining@nw.org
Subscription Requests | Privacy Policy | www.nw.org/nfmc

Click here to unsubscribe.

AN IMPORTANT E-NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CalHFA:
Please DO NOT REPLY to this email message, this email box is not monitored and therefore responses to your questions may be delayed.

The California Housing Finance Agency has released the following Program Bulletin:

#2008-13 - Revised Interest Rates

For detailed information see Program Bulletin #2008-13 on CalHFA’s web site.
http://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/bulletins/index.htm

If you would like to unsubscribe from any of the CalHFA E-News lists, please visit our website at https://wp11.calhfa.ca.gov/Enews/
If you have questions or comments, please direct them to our Marketing email at marketing@calhfa.ca.gov - Thank you.

CALIFORNIA HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

Craigslist Not Liable for FHA Violations
Federal appellate affirms trial court ruling that website is not liable for content posted by others.

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NAIFA E-Gram
NAIFA E-Gram
The San Francisco Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers and

NAIFA is happy to announce the following class coming to a location near you!

5.0A National USPAP Update (2008)

Date: April 5, 2008

Time: 9:00am-5:00pm

Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open SpaceDistrict
747 Mendocino Ave
Santa Rosa, CA

You can register for this course by contact Lynn Cuervo at 703-733-2123 or http://www.appraisers.org/courses/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_cschedule&id=SE101&disc=x

This e-mail may contain an advertisement.

National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers
401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2200, Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 321-6830 Fax: (312) 673-6652 Email: info@naifa.com

Privacy Statement - No-Spam Policy - Forward to a Friend
Copyright © 2005 National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers

Our local DA in the Real Estate Fraud unit, Larry Roberts, will be a speaker on 4/4/08 at the FREE seminar in Palm Springs. www.scca.org Eduction link.

We will have the IRS there and HUD to talk about frauds and how the appraiser is used or participates. Following the seminar, I will be hosting a party at the Elrod House on Southridge Drive, designed by John Lautner.

RISMEDIA, March 24, 2008-(MCT)-The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office has taken five people into custody and is seeking two more who are suspected of running a bait-and-switch ring using lies and forgery to sell mortgages at predatory interest rates throughout California.

The State attorney general’s office said it has shut down a complex lending scheme by obtaining a court order to freeze all of the related companies’ real estate and bank accounts. It also seized cars and real estate worth millions of dollars owned by Eric Michael Pony, 25, the Tarzana man who is suspected of headed the operation.

District Attorney Michael Ramos said for nine months his office has been investigating the operation that he called “the worst of the worst of predatory lenders.” Telemarketers sought victims statewide, often targeting the elderly and many people who spoke no English, he said.

Deputy Attorney General Christina Tusan said there are probably hundreds of victims. Sixty have been identified.

Seven of the alleged victims reside in San Bernardino County. The district attorney’s office said the seven have lost $2.5million. The State attorney general has filed a lawsuit claiming an estimated $20 million in penalties and restitution.

Ramos said the San Bernardino County Superior Court issued warrants on Friday for the arrest of Pony, his sister Paulette Pony, 23, also of Tarzana; Jacob Shawn “Coby” Franco, 46, of Encino; Eli Hassine, 25, of Sherman Oaks; Carol Binnie Pencille, 57, of Granada Hills; Sibpun Ampornpet, 31, of North Hollywood and Jason Imperial Burbidge, 35, of West Hills.

All were taken into custody Tuesday except for the Ponys, who are still at large.

“We are looking for them. We don’t know where they are,” said Larry Roberts, the lead deputy district attorney on the real estate fraud unit. The charges included conspiracy, grand theft, forgery and elder abuse.

At a news conference Tuesday, Ramos said the scheme was marketed over the telephone by callers who said they represented a company called Lifetime Financial. He said victims were told they could refinance their homes and cash out funds at fixed interest rates.

Instead they got mortgages with high interest rates they could not afford, Ramos said, and most of the money obtained from refinancing went to the brokers in the form of fees.

Ramos said the victims were subprime borrowers who would not have qualified for the mortgages, which in some cases required them to make monthly payments that exceeded their income. He said in most cases the terms of the mortgages were set without the borrowers’ permission.

That was done, he said by falsifying loan documents, forging borrowers ` signatures, using notary services illegally and padding home values above their market value by using phony appraisals, Ramos said.

Tracylyn Sharrit, 40, of San Bernardino, said when a Lifetime Financial representative called her one evening in 2006, she was interested in his proposal to refinance the adjustable mortgage on her family’s three-bedroom house into a fixed rate.

But she said when she went to sign the loan documents at the company’s Studio City office she found the terms had been changed. She said she refused to sign the documents and demanded that they be rewritten. But she said when she called to find out when the new paperwork would be ready, she was told the loan was already in escrow.

Sharrit said her name was forged on the loan documents and misspelled.

Sharrit said she and her husband, Ronald, struggled to make the monthly payments on the new mortgage, which she said increased from about $1070 to more than $1800. She said they cannot afford it and have asked their lender for a four-month forbearance. They hope to get financial help from the lawsuits.

“For the first time in my life I am late on my mortgage,” Sharrit said.

Copyright © 2008, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.

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MARCH 2008

NCHEC Place-Based Training
San Francisco, CA
Apply Online for a HUD Tuition Scholarship

NCHEC & HUD Regional Place-Based Training
San Francisco, CA
May 14-15, 2008

Apply now for a scholarship to attend FREE training offered exclusively for staff of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. Provided by HUD and the NeighborWorks® Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC), the training curriculum is part of the nationally-recognized NeighborWorks® Training Institute.

HO109 Foreclosure Basics
2 day course

Apply today. Deadline for applications is FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008.

Click here for details and to apply online.
Please do not submit scholarship applications without first receiving approval from your supervisor and/or Executive Director.

NeighborWorks® America through the NeighborWorks® Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are working together to provide training opportunities to all HUD-Approved housing counseling agencies. HUD-Approved housing counseling agency staff and counselors are eligible to receive tuition scholarships and expanded training courses at the NeighborWorks® Training Institute and regional place-based training locations throughout the U.S. Learn more about NCHEC and the HUD agreement online at www.nw.org/nchec.

NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling
1325 G Street, NW, Suite 800 · Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 800-438-5547 or 202-220-2454 · Fax: 202-376-7276 · E-mail: nchec@nw.org
Subscription Requests | Privacy Policy | http://www.nw.org/nchec

Click here to unsubscribe.

AN IMPORTANT E-NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CalHFA:
Please DO NOT REPLY to this email message, this email box is not monitored and therefore responses to your questions may be delayed.

The California Housing Finance Agency has released the following Program Bulletins:

#2008-11 - Updated Income Limits
#2008-12 - Updated Sales Price Limits

For detailed information see these Program Bulletins on CalHFA’s web site.
http://www.calhfa.ca.gov/homeownership/bulletins/index.htm

If you would like to unsubscribe from any of the CalHFA E-News lists, please visit our website at https://wp11.calhfa.ca.gov/Enews/
If you have questions or comments, please direct them to our Marketing email at marketing@calhfa.ca.gov - Thank you.

CALIFORNIA HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

HUD Secretary Applauds NeighborWorks America for Awarding $130 Million for Foreclosure Prevention Counseling
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson applauded NeighborWorks America for expeditiously awarding $130 million to HUD-approved national counseling intermediaries and state housing finance agencies. The grants will provide thousands of families with foreclosure prevention counseling. See news release.

HOPE NOW: National Homeownership Preservation Tour Off to Strong Start
HOPE NOW launched the nationwide homeownership preservation workshops in California last week with nearly 1,000 homeowners sitting down with their mortgage servicer to develop a workout option and, in many cases, obtain counseling services provided by local nonprofit organizations coordinated by NeighborWorks America. For the California tour, HOPE NOW partnered with NeighborWorks and 90 Days of HOPE, sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger’s Task Force on Non-Traditional Mortgages. Learn more.

Some Former Mortgage Brokers Join Foreclosure Counseling Effort
Mortgage brokers thrived on commissions during the housing boom amid lax lending standards. Now, with mortgage defaults soaring and lending volumes plunging, some former brokers and loan officers have converted to a new occupation: counseling borrowers who are trying to avert foreclosure. A recent Wall Street Journal article examines this new trend and features NeighborWorks America organizations, such as Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica (New York) and Beyond Housing in St. Louis, Missouri. Read “Switching Sides.”

Visit us online at: www.nw.org

Community Strategies represent the shared experience of NeighborWorks America and its member organizations in various topics of community development and affordable housing.

The NeighborWorks Training Institute is dedicated to providing the highest quality training for community development practitioners. Learn about the latest classes and symposia on leading-edge topics.

NeighborWorks America produces a wide variety of publications that can be downloaded at NeighborWorks Publications.

Find lists and charts on NeighborWorks America and NeighborWorks organizations.

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To comment or suggest content, contact lhassan@nw.org.

For questions or comments on regulatory or legislative items, contact hdecell@nw.org.

For past issues of NeighborWorks Alert, click here

Losses Stall Affordable-Housing Projects

Affordable housing is the latest victim of the credit crunch that is reverberating through financial markets. Projects are being canceled because some of the nation’s largest financial companies have scaled back their participation in the federal government’s largest and most prolific affordable housing tax-credit program, designed to boost construction of below-market-rent apartments. Reeling from losses in the housing and credit markets, U.S. financial giants are without profits that need shielding from taxes and therefore don’t need tax credits. With few buyers, the value of tax credits has declined sharply, leaving a funding gap for developers. The low-income housing tax-credit program was created in 1986 and has financed the construction of more than a million below-market rate apartments. It is considered one of the most successful federal housing programs that melds aspects of government subsidy with free-market enterprise. See Wall Street Journal article.

National Homeownership Organizations Announce New Funding to Support Existing and Prospective Homeowners

Three national housing organizations—HomeFree-USA, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and NeighborWorks America—have announced new financial support from the Genworth Foundation in response to the homeownership financing needs of existing and prospective homeowners. The Homeownership Helps initiative, being funded with a two-year total of $2 million, will help households looking to purchase a home and those struggling with their current mortgage. In addition, a research study will be included to capture the initiative’s outcomes and to explore the merits of non-profit organizations delivering homeownership financing assistance. Read news release.

NeighborWorks Member Voice of Calvary Ministries Highlighted for Revitalizing Mississippi Neighborhoods
Developers and nonprofit agencies, such as NeighborWorks member Voice of Calvary Ministries, are buying up lots throughout Jackson, Miss., and turning them into moderate- and low-income housing developments. The city has lost 300 houses a year over the last 15 years to substandard conditions, causing blight in some neighborhoods, according to the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development. To revitalize the neighborhoods and reverse the trend, Voice of Calvary Ministries has launched a $2.5 million project to rebuild 10 homes by January 2009. In addition to the new houses, Voice of Calvary Ministries is going to beautify the streets with new lighting and improve existing structures. Learn more.

NeighborWorks Great Falls Ramps up Home-Access Efforts for People in Wheelchairs
NeighborWorks of Great Falls in Montana has come up with a novel approach to helping the elderly, people who use wheelchairs and others for whom finding accessible homes can be a challenge. Steps and stairs can be a daunting task for these groups and they often overcome the challenge by spending a few thousand dollars to build a ramp to the front door of their houses. Then, when a house changes hands years later, the new owner may tear out the ramp and throw it away.

NeighborWorks Great Falls has a better idea. Through the group’s Fix Up Great Falls Program, and a $20,000 donation from the Benefis Healthcare Foundation, NeighborWorks has bought four movable ramp systems for about $5,000 each. The company that sold NeighborWorks the ramps, All About Mobility, provides free installation. All four ramps were installed early this year, and there’s a waiting list for other families who need them. Expanding the program is contingent upon additional funding, officials said. Read Great Falls Tribune article.

Businesses and Individuals Provide Ingredients for “Stone Soup House” in Pueblo, Colorado

The Stone Soup House began when Greg Saccamono, a local home builder, thought up the idea of building a house and donating it to NeighborWorks of Pueblo, Colorado. The proceeds from the sale of the house would support the organization’s Affordable Housing Program, which in the fiscal year 2006-2007, helped 192 families purchase their first homes.

Soon, the city of Pueblo became involved and donated a vacant lot for the house. One by one, local contractors, supply companies, construction companies, and individuals began donating materials for the endeavor. The project soon became called the Stone Soup House.

The real-life story is much like the old-time fable of the Stone Soup. And just as in the children’s Stone Soup story, this story has a happy ending. Learn more.