HOUSING
Housing
"There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits"
- Robert Southey
The mission of the Housing Department is to empower all persons in our community with the knowledge to recognize housing discrimination, serve as a social advocate for fair housing justice, and ensure that all Lorain County residents are equipped with the knowledge to become informed consumers in the 21st Century. Our goal is to minimize housing discrimination and to help adults attain economic self-sufficiency through homeownership and entrepreneurship.
Who We Are:
For over two decades the Housing Department has been the primary agency that monitors and helps to enforce the Fair Housing Laws and Ordinances in Lorain County. The LCUL Housing Department is dedicated to eliminating illegal practices and social barriers to fair housing.
Our signature program is the Comprehensive Housing Counseling Program which provides a wide spectrum of housing counseling services to homebuyers, homeowners, low-to moderate-income renters, and the homeless. We are a HUD approved Housing Counseling Agency with certified staff who can help you with your housing needs. In 2010, the National Urban League recognized the Lorain County Urban League Housing Counseling Program as one of the top performing affiliates in the country!
How We Help:
Comprehensive Housing Counseling provides FREE private consultation between a housing counselor and the client, FREE assessment of the client's situation to determine individual need, FREE information and advice about various programs available to help clients acquire and maintain affordable housing. Homeowners and renters, regardless of financial status, may receive counseling for a variety of reasons. Clients are offered individual counseling to insure that they completely understand their situation and the options available to them.
Our counseling services are designed to meet the needs of each family, and can address any of these issues:
- Money and credit management
- How to prepare and buy a home
- Delinquent mortgage payment and foreclosure prevention
- Home Maintenance
- Tenant and landlord rights
- Fair Housing rights
- Homelessness
- Referrals to community resources - most non-housing related problems are referred to other agencies such as Job & Family Service, food pantries, social service agencies, legal services, alcohol and substance abuse agencies, homeless programs, job training and placement, and sources of financial assistance
For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact Mindy Wright, Housing Director, at 440-323-3364 x22 or mcooper@lcul.org, or Larisa Staruch, Foreclosure Prevention Counselor at 440-323-3364 x31 or lstaruch@lcul.org.
Foreclosure Prevention Program
If you are struggling to make your mortgage payments or have already fallen behind, our certified foreclosure prevention counselors may be able to help. Unfortunately more than half of homeowners facing foreclosure do not call for help when they begin to fall behind in their payments. The earlier a homeowner asks for help, the better their chance of saving their home. he Lorain County Urban League is involved in many programs to preserve the dream of homeownership.
Restoring Stability: A Save the Dream Ohio Initiative - also known as the Hardest Hit Fund Program
The state of Ohio's foreclosure prevention program, Restoring Stability: A Save the Dream Ohio Initiative, is administered by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA). The Agency launched the program in 2010 to help homeowners who have a temporary or permanent reduction in income. Restoring Stability is designed to help homeowners who have experienced a financial hardship stay in their homes or exit their homes gracefully and avoid a foreclosure that could seriously damage their credit rating. Programs include:
- Rescue Payment Assistance provides a payment to a participating homeowner's mortgage servicer to help bring the homeowner current on his or her delinquent mortgage.
- Mortgage Payment Assistance provides up to 15 months of mortgage payments to servicers for unemployed and underemployed homeowners.
- Mortgage Modification with Contribution Assistance provides a payment to mortgage servicers to reduce a participating homeowner's mortgage principal in connection with a loan modification.
- Transitional Assistance provides homeowners who cannot sustain homeownership with an alternative to foreclosure by offering relocation assistance in connection with an approved short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.
- Lien Elimination Assistance provides a payment to a participating homeowner's mortgage servicer and other lienholders to extinguish existing liens.
TO APPLY
Apply by Phone: Contact one of our certified foreclosure prevention counselors by calling 440-323-3364 x31 or 440-323-3364 x22.
Apply Online: Visit http://www.restoringstability.org/ and click "Start Now".
Please note: If you are interested in receiving assistance from a counselor at Lorain County Urban League, be sure to select "Lorain County Urban League" under the Agency menu.
Once your profile information is complete, you'll need to complete the seven-step online application for assistance. While it's not mandatory to complete all of these steps, the more information you can share the faster and more accurately assistance can be provided. The first four steps will register you in OHFA's system and connect you with a housing counseling agency, while the remaining three steps contain critical information for OHFA to be able to help you.
Foreclosure Rescue Scam Alert:
When you are faced with a foreclosure, your information is made available to the public. This means that your personal information can be found by a number of for-profit companies and attorneys looking to take advantage of you. Though there are a variety of foreclosure rescue programs, there are several easy ways to tell if you are being approached by a scam-artist.
Warning Signs of Scams
- They charge a fee for their services (usually in advance)
- They state that you have been "pre-selected"
- They make promises or provide guarantees
- They tell you "don't contact your lender"
- They encourage you to file bankruptcy or that they can refinance your loan
Tips to Avoid Scams
- Don't pay when FREE help is available
- Only pay your lender or servicer
- Don't respond to unsolicited mailings, calls or visitors
- Get all promises in writing
- Understand everything you are asked to sign
- Never sign over the deed to your home
Reporting a Scam
- Save all paperwork and/or contact information that you receive
- Contact the Ohio Attorney General at 1.877.AG4OHIO
- File a complaint at www.LoanScamAlert.org.
Our Sponsors and Contributors
We thank the following organizations for their material and/or financial support of our Housing Program:
