Sheila Marshall works with a struggling homeowner at HomeFree-USA in Hyattsville.
“Good afternoon. Thank you for calling HomeFree-USA. How may I help you?” she says through her telephone headset.
“No, no, that’s OK,” she reassures the person on the other end of the line. “Let’s focus on you right now, and then we’ll figure out what to do, OK? No, no. You’re fine. Come on. You’re OK.”
Marshall and other workers at the nonprofit agency HomeFree-USA have been inundated with requests for advice on preventing foreclosures and how to deal with rising mortgage costs during the current housing crisis, which President Marcia Griffin repeatedly calls a “tsunami.”
Potential clients who enter the HomeFree office receive a document called “2009 Survey for Homeowners.” Question seven is, “Which two words best describe you?”
Griffin flips through a stack of 35 recent surveys. “Which do you think is the most common response?” she asks knowingly.
Distressed? No. Fearful? No again.
“Prayerful,” she says.
In a recent sample of 50 surveys, 74 percent of respondents checked that box, and “relieved” came in second, with 40 percent of respondents choosing that option. Other choices included anxious, frustrated and disgusted.
The waiting room at HomeFree-USA offers numerous pamphlets that could cause alarm — a purple handout with “3 Revealing Homeowner Mistakes” in big letters is a great example — but there are also comfortable sofas and chairs. A candle flickers soothingly on one of the tables.
In the intake room, Marshall goes through a list of seemingly every possible financial question — how much the potential client spends on utilities, groceries — before finishing up.
“How about spending money? Give yourself any?” she asks with a chuckle.
“Most people start laughing with that question, but it’s on the form,” Marshall says. “We never promise, but our counselors do the best they can.”
