McHenry housing forum message: Don't wait to get help

If there is a silver lining behind the very dark cloud of the housing and foreclosure crisis, it's that there is plenty of help out there to keep struggling families in their homes.

The bad news is that so few of those families are aware of it.

McHenry County set out to change that Friday by sponsoring a forum of government, business and social service agency leaders to explore the assistance opportunities out there and how they can reach those in need.

"The reason for this is to understand we have an issue, that it's not getting better immediately and we have to fund out what resources are out there to help people," County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said.

The numbers back up the claim that the housing crisis is very much an issue for the county.

Last year, the number of foreclosures in McHenry County reached 2,315, a 47-percent increase over 2007, said Greg Gojean of Home State Bank. Of all the houses put up for sale last year, said Elise Livingston of the McHenry County Association of Realtors, nearly 20 percent were in foreclosure or similar hardship.

If there was a theme to Friday's forum it was that homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage shouldn't wait to seek help. Too often, forum panelists said, homeowners in trouble are ignorant - often willfully ignorant - of the assistance that's out there.

"We're getting people who are basically shellshocked," said Sue Rose, community service director of the McHenry County Housing Authority. "I equate someone losing a house in a foreclosure to a disaster victim."

Gojean said some homeowners facing foreclosure sometimes go months without reading their mail for fear of a notice from their lender. Most, he said, never think of contacting their mortgage holder seeking help.

That, he said, is about the worst thing a person can do.

"In spite of what you might think, lenders don't want your house," Gojean said.

With the market already saturated with homes for sale and home values way down, he said, "lenders are highly motivated to keep homeowners in their homes."

Because of that, lenders often will consider a number of options - from reduced interest rates to deferred payments to even a reduction in mortgage principal - to keep a home out of foreclosure.

"The moment you run into trouble, that's when we need to see you," said Mike Iwanicki of the county's Veterans' Assistance Commission. "There is help out there, but you have to access it when the problem starts."

The forum's moderator, Ken Ivers, president of Imagine McHenry County, said Friday's event should be just the opening dialogue in an ongoing discussion about the housing crisis and how local governments and agencies can help.