Legal News

Phila. Mortgage Foreclosure Program Receives City Livability Award

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

As Philadelphia leaders accepted another award in honor of a court program that requires a mediation conference between homeowners and lenders before foreclosure cases can go to sheriff's sale, program leaders are also reporting there are more borrowers who save their homes from foreclosure than there are homeowners that don't save their homes from foreclosure after going through the program.

Since the official inception of the mortgage foreclosure diversion program in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in June 2008, 1,800 homeowners have had their homes saved from foreclosure, said Paul D. Chrystie, director of communications for the city Office of Housing and Community Development.

Nine hundred homes went through foreclosure through August 2009. Statistics from the Sheriff's Office aren't available after August, Chrystie said. So he extrapolated that another 200 or some homes have probably gone to foreclosure since August based on past experience. With those statistics, three out of every five homes going through the foreclosure program have been saved from foreclosure, Chrystie said.

There are 3,500 homeowners who are now going through the program, Mayor Michael Nutter said during a press conference Tuesday.

Nutter, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Annette M. Rizzo, who presides over the program, and other stakeholders in the program accepted an award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The group's city livability program honors mayors and their city governments for developing programs that enhance the quality of life in urban areas. Over 200 cities applied for the city livability award this year, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors official.

For those homeowners who go through the program and can't avert foreclosure through a workout, the program allows them "a graceful exit with dignity," Rizzo said. The program also allows for foreclosure "postponement with purpose," Rizzo said.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).