Foreclosure help available Saturday in Myrtle Beach

Area homeowners facing foreclosure will have a chance to learn about options to avoid losing their homes at a free event in Myrtle Beach on Saturday as a South Carolina agency gets ready to roll out an ad campaign about a foreclosure prevention program.

Larry Knightner, the director of the S.C. office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and housing counselors will discuss strategies and resources available to homeowners at the event. The event, which is organized by several groups including the Carolina African American Heritage Foundation, Rehoboth Community Development Corp. and the City of Myrtle Beach, will be at 10 a.m. at the Myrtle Beach Train Depot, 851 Broadway St.

The foreclosure crisis continues to persist as homeowners still struggle with issues of unemployment, unforeseen expenses and dropping property values. There are programs, through the federal and state government and through the banks, that may help homeowners that live in their property stay there, officials said.

"When you have government resources that can help people out of this depressed state, we need to make sure people have access to this information," said Bennie Swans, one of the event organizers and the chairman of the Carolina African American Heritage Foundation.

Reports of housing market woes spurred the groups to come together to provide information for community leaders, homeowners and those working in real estate, he said.

HUD released information Thursday detailing how many homeowners have benefited from the federal government's foreclosure prevention program, the Home Affordable Modification Program or HAMP, which has been widely criticized.

In April, 29,000 homeowners received a trial loan modification through HAMP and the median payment reduction for those modifications was 37 percent, or more than $500 a month, according to HUD.

From the start of the program in April 2009 through the end of March, more than 4.8 million modifications were started. In the Myrtle Beach area, 1,466 trial modifications and 736 permanent modifications were started since the program began. As of April, there were 144 active trial modifications and 640 active permanent modifications, according to HUD.

The HUD scorecard also identified lenders that need to improve their loan modification programs, based on a review of their methods in identifying and contacting homeowners, evaluating and assisting homeowners and program reporting and management. Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC and Wells Fargo Bank were found to need substantial improvements; six other lenders were found to need moderate improvement.

The lenders are required to fix all violations, and starting in June the Treasury Department is withholding financial incentives for Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo until they meet certain requirements in addressing the issues.

At the event in Myrtle Beach, a panel of experts will present information, answer questions and talk about various programs that are available.

Swans encouraged people to attend the workshop and see it as an opportunity to find out how to get a "hand up, not a hand out," he said.

"People are so very, very proud and that I think we must appreciate, but we should also encourage them to take advantage of resources when they are available," Swans said.

The South Carolina Homeownership and Employment Lending Program, or S.C. HELP, a foreclosure prevention program administered by the S.C. Housing Corp., is another option, especially for out of work homeowners.

The program, funded by almost $300 million the state received through the federal Hardest Hit Fund, offers struggling homeowners three types of assistance: monthly mortgage payments for those who are out of work, a one-time payment to help formerly unemployed homeowners pay off missed payments and fees, or financial help with a short sale or deed-in-lieu and relocation for homeowners who have no other solution.

Homeowners looking for monthly payment assistance or a direct loan reduction must be able to document hardship, must have made mortgage payments on time for 12 months before the hardship, cannot be more than 120 days delinquent on the mortgage and must prove that the property is a full-time residence. The homeowner's lender must be willing to accept payments from the program.

Many of the biggest lenders, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi and Chase, are participating. The S.C. State Housing Authority, Carolina Alliance Bank, The Palmetto Bank and First Community Bank are also participating.

About 5,000 applications have been started and are in some phase, about 500 homeowners have been approved and about 250 homeowners are already receiving the assistance on their mortgage payments, officials said.

S.C. HELP partnered with the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce and is sending letters to residents receiving unemployment benefits to inform them about the program. Next week, S.C. HELP will launch a statewide awareness campaign that will include radio, online and newspaper advertisements as well as billboards.

"We are expecting these numbers to go much higher with these combined efforts around the state," said Clayton Ingram with the S.C. State Housing, Finance and Development Authority. "We want to drive it as hard as possible. We want to somehow touch everyone who could benefit from this."

The advertising campaign took time to develop because it had to be built from scratch, which is why it is being launched now.

There is a consistent stream of applicants, most who apply through the website www.scmortgagehelp.com, he said.