Job Aid Helps Nearly 1-in-4 Owners Keep Homes

Access to employment services is needed by nearly one in four homeowners to help keep their homes, according to a MortgageKeeper Referral Services' analysis of 400,000 homeowners at year-end 2009. MortgageKeeper Referral Services, which connects homeowners with qualified nonprofit and government agencies, found that employment assistance was the most requested of 19 service categories provided by their database. In the top five also were requests for food assistance, help paying utility bills, prescription drug assistance and legal assistance. The company said its database gets an average of 1,000 hits a day, helping over 30,000 families every month. These findings highlight that foreclosures are a symptom of much larger economic problems that need to be addressed to avoid redefaults on modified loans, said MortgageKeeper Referral Services president Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey.