Two years ago, about 700 people sought help from St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center.
Last year, 2,000 Baltimore residents in need came through the center?s doors.
This year, St. Ambrose deputy director Lisa Evans said the nonprofit is on pace to see more than 3,000 homeowners seeking help to stay in their homes.
“We?ve actually been doing foreclosure counseling for 30 years. Clearly what we?ve seen in the last few years is dramatically different,” Evans said during a conference call Friday between state housing counselors and Sen. Ben Cardin. “I think it has changed even in the past month ? capacity is becoming a tremendous issue.”
They?re not alone, as a rising tide of foreclosures and mortgage defaults threatens to swamp the foreclosure aid groups.
Chris Ryer, director of the Southeast Community Developement Corporation in Baltimore City, said his group?s foreclosure counselors fielded between 30 and 35 requests last month alone.
“I can tell you we saw as many people in January as we did in the whole of 2007,” he said. “Traditionally, people get into [foreclosures] because of life crises. But people aren?t getting sick or getting divorced at 10 or 12 times the rate in this last year. It?s the loan products they?re in.”
Ryer said he planned to cope with the increase by adding staff, possibly through a small state grant, and said several prepurchase counselors have switched to the more time-intensive post-purchase counseling. While post-purchase counseling usually makes up about 10 percent of the group?s advisory efforts, he said it?s now grown to about 30 percent.
Groups across the city are struggling with adding staff and training those they do hire, said Joanna Smith-Ramani, co-chair of the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition.
“We haven?t seen a sufficient investment or that structural training for those counselors,” she said. “You can?t just all of sudden hire five new housing foreclosure specialists. They don?t exist, you have to train them.”
Complicating the issue, a number of shady “foreclosure counseling” firms offer services to beleaguered homeowners. Smith-Ramani said anyone seeking help should ask if a counselor is certified by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, NeighborWorks or a member of the Maryland Housing Counselors Network.
“If the answers are no, then I don?t want to work with them,” she said. “A lot of them are mortgage brokers who no longer have work.”
