Countrywide & ACORN to Help Locate Displaced Homeowners
The following press release explains the efforts of Countrywide Mortgage and ACORN, who have come together to help locate homeowners who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Countrywide Joins ACORN Initiative to Locate Hurricane-Displaced Homeowners 03/15/2006
HOUSTON, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- More than six months after Hurricane Katrina, thousands of displaced Gulf Coast homeowners still have not contacted their mortgage lender to discuss their options for postponement of payments and other steps toward personal recovery.
Now, with financial support from the nation's #1 home loan lender, Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC), the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has launched a telephone and door-to-door campaign to find evacuees and put them in touch with their lender, whether it is Countrywide or another company. The program was announced on Wednesday in Houston, one of several cities with a high presence of hurricane evacuees. Others included in the program include Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The canvassing follows a series of newspaper ads that Countrywide placed last month in newspapers in affected communities across the Gulf Coast states.
The ads encouraged Countrywide customers to call the lender, and also listed the ACORN Housing Helpline as an intermediary for customers of other mortgage companies to contact their lenders. "Countrywide and other mortgage lenders have provided significant assistance to our customers affected by the storms, including suspending mortgage payments and credit reporting," said Michael Gross, Managing Director of Mortgage Servicing for Countrywide. "However, despite our best efforts to reach them, there are still a number of customers who we have been unable to reach, limiting our ability to provide assistance to them. "ACORN has the proven ability to organize and mobilize its membership for community outreach, and we are pleased to support them in this all-out effort to reach hurricane victims and put them in contact with their lender," Gross said.
"ACORN Housing has been able to assist almost all the Katrina Survivors we have worked with in making arrangements with their lender to protect their home and their finances," said Dorothy Stukes, president of the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association. "But everyone needs to get in contact with their lender or ACORN Housing as soon as possible -- and we are going to go out in the community to make sure as many people as possible know they need to act now." In accordance with the guidelines established by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and other entities who own or insure mortgages, Countrywide will continue to offer postponed payments and other assistance to customers in the most devastated areas whose homes remain uninhabitable or who are unable to work. The majority of Countrywide's customers affected by the hurricanes have already contacted the lender to be considered for various forms of assistance including postponement of monthly payments, repayment plans, loan modifications or loan reinstatement. Other lenders are taking similar measures.
But no help is available to homeowners who don't contact their lender, and more than six months after Katrina, time is of the essence for those homeowners. Impacted customers who have not contacted Countrywide since the hurricanes are urged to call a special toll-free hotline set up for this purpose at 877-744-7691.
The ACORN Housing Hotline can help homeowners who are not customers of Countrywide contact and work with their individual lenders at 866-471-2272.
In addition to payment forbearance and other assistance programs designed to help individual hurricane victims, Countrywide and its employees have participated in voluntary hurricane relief efforts and collectively committed about $2 million in financial aid to recovery programs in the Gulf Coast region.
* Source: As ranked for 2005 by Inside Mortgage Finance (Jan. 26, 2006),
Copyright 2006
About Countrywide Financial Corporation
Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation is a member of the S&P 500 and Fortune 500. Through its family of companies, Countrywide provides mortgage banking and diversified financial services in domestic and international markets. Mortgage banking businesses include loan production and servicing principally through Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., which originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services primarily prime-quality loans.
Also included in Countrywide's mortgage banking segment is the LandSafe group of companies that provide loan closing services. Diversified financial services encompass capital markets, banking, insurance, and global, largely through the activities of Countrywide Capital Markets, a mortgage-related investment banker; Countrywide Bank, a banking entity offering customers CDs, money market accounts, and home loan products; Balboa Life & Casualty Group, whose companies are national providers of property, liability, and life insurance; and Balboa Reinsurance, a captive mortgage reinsurance company. For more information about the Company, visit Countrywide's Web site at www.Countrywide.com.
About ACORN
ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 175,000 member families organized into 800 neighborhood chapters in 80 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments, and better public schools. We achieve these goals by building community organizations that have the power to win changes -- through direct action, negotiation, legislation, and voter participation. ACORN is an acronym, and each letter should be capitalized. ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Countrywide Joins ACORN Initiative to Locate Hurricane-Displaced Homeowners 03/15/2006
HOUSTON, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- More than six months after Hurricane Katrina, thousands of displaced Gulf Coast homeowners still have not contacted their mortgage lender to discuss their options for postponement of payments and other steps toward personal recovery.
Now, with financial support from the nation's #1 home loan lender, Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC), the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has launched a telephone and door-to-door campaign to find evacuees and put them in touch with their lender, whether it is Countrywide or another company. The program was announced on Wednesday in Houston, one of several cities with a high presence of hurricane evacuees. Others included in the program include Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The canvassing follows a series of newspaper ads that Countrywide placed last month in newspapers in affected communities across the Gulf Coast states.
The ads encouraged Countrywide customers to call the lender, and also listed the ACORN Housing Helpline as an intermediary for customers of other mortgage companies to contact their lenders. "Countrywide and other mortgage lenders have provided significant assistance to our customers affected by the storms, including suspending mortgage payments and credit reporting," said Michael Gross, Managing Director of Mortgage Servicing for Countrywide. "However, despite our best efforts to reach them, there are still a number of customers who we have been unable to reach, limiting our ability to provide assistance to them. "ACORN has the proven ability to organize and mobilize its membership for community outreach, and we are pleased to support them in this all-out effort to reach hurricane victims and put them in contact with their lender," Gross said.
"ACORN Housing has been able to assist almost all the Katrina Survivors we have worked with in making arrangements with their lender to protect their home and their finances," said Dorothy Stukes, president of the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association. "But everyone needs to get in contact with their lender or ACORN Housing as soon as possible -- and we are going to go out in the community to make sure as many people as possible know they need to act now." In accordance with the guidelines established by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and other entities who own or insure mortgages, Countrywide will continue to offer postponed payments and other assistance to customers in the most devastated areas whose homes remain uninhabitable or who are unable to work. The majority of Countrywide's customers affected by the hurricanes have already contacted the lender to be considered for various forms of assistance including postponement of monthly payments, repayment plans, loan modifications or loan reinstatement. Other lenders are taking similar measures.
But no help is available to homeowners who don't contact their lender, and more than six months after Katrina, time is of the essence for those homeowners. Impacted customers who have not contacted Countrywide since the hurricanes are urged to call a special toll-free hotline set up for this purpose at 877-744-7691.
The ACORN Housing Hotline can help homeowners who are not customers of Countrywide contact and work with their individual lenders at 866-471-2272.
In addition to payment forbearance and other assistance programs designed to help individual hurricane victims, Countrywide and its employees have participated in voluntary hurricane relief efforts and collectively committed about $2 million in financial aid to recovery programs in the Gulf Coast region.
* Source: As ranked for 2005 by Inside Mortgage Finance (Jan. 26, 2006),
Copyright 2006
About Countrywide Financial Corporation
Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation is a member of the S&P 500 and Fortune 500. Through its family of companies, Countrywide provides mortgage banking and diversified financial services in domestic and international markets. Mortgage banking businesses include loan production and servicing principally through Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., which originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services primarily prime-quality loans.
Also included in Countrywide's mortgage banking segment is the LandSafe group of companies that provide loan closing services. Diversified financial services encompass capital markets, banking, insurance, and global, largely through the activities of Countrywide Capital Markets, a mortgage-related investment banker; Countrywide Bank, a banking entity offering customers CDs, money market accounts, and home loan products; Balboa Life & Casualty Group, whose companies are national providers of property, liability, and life insurance; and Balboa Reinsurance, a captive mortgage reinsurance company. For more information about the Company, visit Countrywide's Web site at www.Countrywide.com.
About ACORN
ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 175,000 member families organized into 800 neighborhood chapters in 80 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments, and better public schools. We achieve these goals by building community organizations that have the power to win changes -- through direct action, negotiation, legislation, and voter participation. ACORN is an acronym, and each letter should be capitalized. ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
posted by Kirby P at 3:36 PM
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