Editor's Letter
Housing Hardship
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f all our material possessions, our home is perhaps the
most significant given that shelter is at the epicenter of
human survival. So keeping people in their homes dur-
ing tough economic times is a tenet of the Jewish community.
Against our state's depressed economy and housing market,
foreclosure rates continue to climb in southeast Michigan. The
problem is rooted in the sub-prime
mortgage crisis, other lending issues
and beyond. Just two years ago, Detroit
Jews had the eighth-highest median
income among Jewish families in the
nation: $85,000. Our Jewish Federation
continues to out-raise most bigger com-
munities in its Annual Campaign.
But a twin assault has been devastat-
ing. Metro Detroit has a jobless rate of
7.7 percent. And Metro Detroit home
prices are down 17.7 percent since their
peak in 2004, reports Realcomp Inc., the
area's largest multiple listing service.
Over the last 10 years in Oakland County, foreclosures have
climbed a whopping 579 percent while the number of parcels
has increased just 10.6 percent, the Oakland
Press reported this month. In 2007, 7,643 homes
in the county were foreclosed on — up 56.6 per-
cent from the year before. Michigan is one of just
eight states with a foreclosure rate of more than
15 per 1,000 households.
Enter Jewish Housing Assistance, LLC.
The program formed in December to ensure,
assist and support affordable housing options
for local Jewish families. The JHA sees itself fitting in between
and working with Jewish Family Service and the Hebrew Free
Loan Association. The intent is to stave off foreclosure and help
clients afford their homes over the long haul.
Program funding comes solely from a seven-figure gift from
an anonymous local donor who sought out Federation CEO
Robert Aronson last fall. Aronson put the wheels in motion to
create the JHA.
Quick Response
Since it opened for business on Dec. 6, JHA has heard 50 cases
and awarded 20 loans ranging from $300 to $36,000. This fragile
but vital collaboration addresses the plight of a growing number
of working families at all income levels. Because of a perfect
storm in their lives, these families no longer can keep up their
house payments. Triggers include death of a family member,
catastrophic illness, divorce or job loss.
Initially, JHA will provide interest-free loans to extend imme-
diate housing-expense relief to qualified homeowners, maybe
ones in business suits who lost their job and now must seek a
smaller home as well as a new job. These loans are meant to
cover only a few months.
Longer term, JHA will work with clients and the mortgage
companies to try to restructure mortgage loans. In some cases, a
forgivable loan and mortgage restructuring may be the answer.
Other clients may be referred to counseling or case management
via Jewish Family Service, which serves us so broadly that it
often falls under the community radar.
JHA inevitably will resound for homeowners with adjustable-
rate mortgages and who expected to refinance once their ARM
went up, but now can't because the value of their home has gone
down. For them, conversion to a fixed-rate loan might work.
4;arzi
Restructured mortgages are a great goal, and no lender wants
to assume ownership of an occupied home; but such fixes don't
come easy.
Robert Pilcowitz, a mortgage professional and former attor-
ney, should know. He's the board chair of JHA. He was candid in
explaining why the program was rolled out without fanfare.
"Government should encourage the major national loan ser-
vicers to create a systematic, consistent plan to handle the tens of
thousands of borrowers who have loans that likely total in excess
of $500 billion and are subject to rate change," Pilcowitz told me.
"The plan should more efficiently and effectively offer borrowers
an opportunity to convert their adjustable-rate loans to lower,
fixed-rate loans!"
Pilcowitz added, "While the government has so far endorsed
at least one plan to freeze rates on a limited number of adjust-
able-rate mortgages, most loan servicers are understaffed or as
yet have not developed a systematic, fully manned workforce
necessary to implement and scale this proposed solution!'
Some servicing companies will freeze rates; others will not.
Still others will at least consider doing so.
With a good servicing result in place, JHA
will be in a position to build organizational
infrastructure and move forward in a big
way on behalf of clients. JHA operates from
the Jewish Family Service building in West
Bloomfield with one paid staff member. JFS
helps with intake and clerical.
A Fine Baiance
JHA hopes to set an operating budget this spring. "By then','
Pilcowitz said, "we hope to measure our charitable purpose
against the needs of the community and scale a budget accord-
ingly. Our donor has been extraordinarily generous!'
Client screening through a mortgage affordability analysis
prevents abuse of the program. Says Mary Keane, executive
director of Hebrew Free Loan, JR.& loan servicer and a golden
lifeline for many Jewish Detroiters over the last 112 years: "It is
not for those who are chronically unable to make ends meet."
We live in an incredibly supportive and close-knit Jewish com-
munity. We're smaller in number than we were 20 years ago, but
our collective heart is as big as ever. We're certainly not about to
let the less fortunate among us get caught in the briar patch and
indignity of foreclosure.
As Federation President Nancy Grosfeld put it: "The hous-
ing crisis has reached its tentacles into the homes of those who
never would have thought it possible. In the face of these chal-
lenging times, we are lucky to have a community that under-
stands the spirit of tikkun olam — repair of the world." ❑
For a confidential assessment, call Jewish Family Service:
W;11 34,-*
T E N E R
(248) 592-2300.
271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN F-3IRMING1-1.AM
10
Do you know someone who could benefit
lX1 from such housing support?
ia
Z! What does the quickness of the JHA
O Q. startup say about our community?
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15 0 2 -P2
SUNDAY 12-.6
ki N 0Ay_s, Anj rmy I 0_6
71-1UR )AY 10
www,:toridrarbirrnincjnsrr).,-,.orr)
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1339400
February 21 • 2008
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