With new state laws on the books to stem the tide of mortgage foreclosures, Maryland officials are mounting a campaign of mass transit advertising, mailings, billboards, radio spots and newspaper ads to encourage homeowners to seek counseling and refinancing help to avoid losing their houses.
“We?re not going to save every home, but we?re going to save as many homes as we can,” said Gov. Martin O?Malley as he announced the new campaign.
Key elements of the laws O?Malley initiated and signed April 3 include extending the foreclosure process from 15 days to 150 days, making mortgage fraud a crime and a new provision to prosecute scams in which houses have been taken from people who thought they were refinancing.
“Things may get worse before they get better,” said state Housing Secretary Raymond Skinner. Interest on adjustable-rate mortgages are likely to be rising again, Skinner said.
The state has already given grants of $1.2 million to a network of housing counseling agencies, O?Malley said, along with adding four new mortgage investigators.
Skinner said nonprofit organizations have advised 4,000 homeowners.
The state is spending about $320,000 in special housing funds to run the ad campaign with the slogan: “Mortgage Late? Don?t wait.” This money has paid for 680,000 postcards to ZIP codes with the highest number of foreclosures. The ads inside and outside buses and light rail cars potentially reach 240,000 daily riders. The radio spots are in English and Spanish.
Dundalk resident Mary Klipa said she read about O?Malley?s initiative last year in the Dundalk Eagle. “That article changed my life,” Klipa said, since she was “financially struggling as a single mom.” After getting help from the state and refinancing, she said it?s been “a fairy-tale happy ending for me.”
A small picture of O?Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown appears in the transit ads and mailers, and O?Malley?s voice closes the radio ads.
