WIN’s Home Preservation Team has been busy! Since July there has been a 200% increase in requests for assistance from foreclosure-threatened clients who need to apply for relief through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s (OHFA) Save the Dream Ohio (SDO) program. Client outreach sessions in cooperation with GMAC/Ocwen Bank representatives as well as group intake sessions of 20?30 people each have been scheduled twice weekly to enable WIN’s housing counselors to help all who need aWssistance. Sessions have also been offered at Corpus Christi Church to serve people in Butler, Warren, and Clermont counties. The team helped 98 families register for help with SDO during just one week in August; by September, 115 more appointments were made.
WIN’s efforts were spotlighted in an article in the OHFA Newsletter, which noted that WIN is one of the first housing counseling agencies to participate in the state’s foreclosure prevention program. WIN’s Pamela Hardin Willis is quoted in the article: “it is really awesome to give the news to someone that, while they are grieving, their mortgage payment will be covered for a time or even…eliminated so that they can…get back on their feet.”
WIN’s clients consistently express great appreciation. “I don’t think I will ever find the words to express what a blessing you have been for me”, says one. “God sent you into my life to flip the script and make the wrong…..more than right.” Another client wrote, “I learned so much from you….you taught while you helped.” An older gentleman wrote that shortly after his wife’s death, WIN helped save the home that was her dream home that he was “determined to do everything to…keep and maintain.” A recent client summarized it well: “Without WIN I am certain that my family would have ended up homeless at an extremely difficult time in our lives. Thank you for all your efforts and guidance.”
These and many more “gifts” of appreciation encourage and stir our staff to continue to make every effort to help those who need it most to remain in their homes. Your support of WIN is an essential part of those efforts.