Marketa Roberts stood in her West Toledo home yesterday and told a mayor and a U.S. senator that she was grateful not to be one of the nation's many casualties of the of the subprime lending crisis.
"I got laid off in 2005 and that's how I got behind in my payments," said Ms. Roberts, a mother of two and now owner of three taxis.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio) met with reporters and Ms. Roberts in her Hoiles Avenue home before touring the West Toledo neighborhood hit hard by foreclosures.
She was able to avoid losing her home by contacting Neighborhood Housing Services. She received a one-year, interest- free, deferred loan.
Senator Voinovich said one of the biggest problems is that people abandon their homes without seeking help.
"As a former mayor, I am very, very concerned about this crisis we have today in America," he said. "This subprime lending crisis has been like a tornado cutting through the neighborhoods of America."Last month, the city of Toledo, Neighborhood Housing Services, and Northwest Ohio Development Agency started a pilot program to bail out 10 families in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure because their interest rates ballooned.
The Toledo Family Foreclosure Program identifies a nonprofit agency to purchase homes in foreclosure and then arranges a lease-purchase agreement with the family occupying the home.
"We lead the country in terms of percentage of homes that are in foreclosure," Senator Voinovich said of Ohio.
The senator called some lending institutions "vultures."
Senator Voinovich also said he wants a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration.
"One of the reasons why so many people went to subprime is because FHA wasn't doing their job," he said. "FHA's requirements were so stringent, [people] said they were leaving and these vultures knew that was the problem."
Bill Farnsel, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services, said that anyone faced with foreclosure should stay in their homes and call his office.
Search
advertisement
