State adds free legal aid to foreclosure prevention effort
Business First of Columbus - Business First
State officials have added more muscle to an effort aimed at curbing Ohio's foreclosure crisis: free legal aid for troubled homeowners.
Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer and several other state officials gathered Tuesday to announce it has added the legal component to its Save the Dream initiative, an effort created last month that helps homeowners connect with counselors and nearby assistance. The new Save the Dream component helps those who need foreclosure assistance but can't afford a lawyer.
Tuesday's development allows homeowners facing foreclosure to call the Save the Dream hotline at 888-404-4674 and see if they meet income and other eligibility requirements to be connected with an attorney working pro bono. The basic income eligibility requirement has been set at a $54,000 annual income or less for a family of four.
State officials last month sent letters to more than 34,000 registered Ohio attorneys requesting they help provide free legal aid. As of Tuesday, more than 1,100 attorneys have registered. About 350 of those attorneys have received foreclosure training from the Ohio State Bar Association, while more training sessions are scheduled, officials said.
Bar Association President Rob Ware said in a release that the attorneys that have signed on are being assigned to local legal service offices to be matched with qualified clients.
"These pro bono attorneys will supplement the resources available in the legal services community which alone are inadequate to address the current need," Ware said.
That need is fueled by pre-foreclosure and foreclosure filings in Ohio that rank among the highest in the nation. Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. reported that Ohio logged 153,196 default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions on 89,979 properties last year. That translates to one Ohio property in a stage of foreclosure for every 56 households in the state, the sixth-highest level in the nation.
For the state's courts, that meant 83,000 new foreclosure filings in the state last year, a record high, according to Supreme Court data.
The state's Save the Dream initiative involves 16 agencies and organizations, including the Department of Development, Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
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