Foreclosure Counseling | Credit Counseling | Budgeting Assistance | konsèy nan Kréyol aïsyen | consejería en español
Are you or is someone you know facing the prospect of foreclosure? Is bad credit holding you back from your personal goals? Two community development corporations have joined efforts to offer trustworthy, confidential, and free foreclosure, credit, and budget counseling, so you don’t have to face it alone.
Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation (Southwest Boston CDC) is conducting outreach to Hyde Park and Roslindale residents to let them know of “financial fitness” and foreclosure prevention counseling services offered by Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation. Codman Square NDC staff, trained and certified by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in foreclosure prevention, will provide the counseling services. Participants do not need to be Roslindale or Hyde Park residents to participate.
Southwest Boston CDC has been awarded funding in collaboration with Codman Square NDC, a community development corporation based in Dorchester, to provide Hyde Park and Roslindale residents with counseling services intended to promote financial fitness and prevent home foreclosures. Under grants from Bank of New York Mellon, Met Life Foundation, and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, staff from Southwest Boston CDC will conduct outreach to publicize the services and provide space for counseling at its offices in Hyde Park; Codman Square NDC will provide the counselors, who are trained to help people facing foreclosure work with their lenders. The counselors’ knowledge also equips them to assist with financial issues other than home foreclosure, including how to improve bad credit or to get advice on effective budgeting. Staff from Codman Square will be on-site at Southwest Boston CDC in Hyde Park once a week to meet confidentially by appointment with people who wish to take advantage of the services, which are offered free of charge.
Southwest Boston CDC Executive Director Mike Feloney explained that the collaboration reflects the need for community-based organizations to partner in publicizing and providing needed services. “We are using a variety of ways to get the word out to Hyde Park and Roslindale residents that these financial fitness and foreclosure counseling services are available”, Feloney said. “We will be contacting civic, church and other community groups, and have the capacity to work with individuals who may need translation services in Haitian Creole or Spanish.”
Feloney explained that the new program grows out of work Southwest Boston CDC started almost two years ago in 2008. A report the CDC issued in January 2008 reported that Hyde Park and Roslindale, the primary service areas for the CDC, had the 3rd and 6th highest rates of foreclosures, respectively, in the City of Boston. Southwest Boston CDC is currently preparing an update to its 2008 report which will provide information on 2009 foreclosure figures. The update will be available in the Fall of 2010.
So far, interest has been evenly spread among foreclosure, budgeting, and credit counseling. This seems to show that participants are not only looking for rescue help with preventing foreclosure, but are also focusing on becoming stronger households by gaining credit and budgeting skills.
Financial fitness and foreclosure prevention counseling services began in February at Southwest Boston CDC’s offices, and are funded through the rest of the year.
Interested persons are encouraged to stop by the Southwest Boston CDC office and pick up and informational packet; however, counseling services are by appointment only. Contact Chris Knoper of Southwest Boston CDC at 617-364-7300 to make an appointment (email: cknoper@swbcdc.org). All calls are confidential.
