Keeping Her Home and Keeping the Faith

Young Family Finds Affordable Solutions to Maintain Homeownership

Grants to Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury Foreclosure Prevention Program Helps Agency Keep Struggling Families in Their Homes

CCF Grant: $10,000

CCF Partner Funder Grant: $20,000 from Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation

Jameelah Rivers is a woman of strong faith. Good thing.

About a year ago, Jameelah, 31, and her husband, Michael, 27, faced losing their home to foreclosure.

“We were in a mortgage crisis,” said Jameelah. “Once you fall behind, it is very hard to get back on track.”

Michael had just lost his job as a bank teller, their tenant was moving out, and their boiler needed to be replaced. Add to that three young children from two to four years old, and a baby on the way.

Both Michael and Jameelah attend Southern Connecticut State University part time – she is a political science and pre-law major, and he studies education and history. Keeping them afloat financially was Michael’s part-time work as a substitute teacher and Jameelah’s licensed in-home daycare business.

Desperate for help, Jameelah called 211. She was referred to the Foreclosure Prevention Program with Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury, Inc.

Neighborhood Housing developed the program in 2007 to take a proactive approach to what is now a subprime mortgage and foreclosure crisis.

“We identified the problem two years ago,” remembered Vivian Becker, executive director. “We wanted to be ahead of the issue.”

Through the program, the agency has reached at-risk families through partnering with faith-based institutions, lending institutions, and traditional social service and emergency assistance programs.

According to Vivian, Neighborhood Housing receives about 20 calls a day, or 100 calls a week from people who need foreclosure counseling. She said that their clients are very diverse racially, economically and geographically.

Dionne Jarrett-Linton, foreclosure prevention coordinator at Neighborhood Housing, took on the Rivers’ foreclosure situation. Jameelah and Michael, along with about 15 other homeowners, met Dionne at the program’s introductory workshop for people facing foreclosure.

Dionne educated the Rivers about different plans to work out their mortgage situation and to buy time through mediation. Dionne developed a forbearance plan to make the Rivers’ payments affordable, wrote a hardship letter for them, mediated with the lender, and came up with a workable budget plan.

“Dionne came up with a one-year plan for us that included opening an escrow account for our taxes and choosing more affordable mortgage insurance,” said Jameelah. “Neighborhood Housing has a jewel in Dionne.”

“I am grateful to the Lord, first,” adds Jameelah who hopes that through sharing their very personal story, she and her husband will encourage others who are facing foreclosure to find the help that they need.

Now, on the other side of foreclosure, Jameelah and her husband enjoy their four children in a house that they can afford.

As they both look forward to graduating in May 2009, Jameelah can say with confidence to others struggling to make their mortgage payments, “We made it, and you can too.”