January 26, 2008
The Association of Communities for Reform Now (ACORN) held a Town Hall Meeting addressing the foreclosure crisis on Wednesday. A full house of current homeowners, potential homeowners, industry professionals and concerned citizens gathered into the El Paso Community College Administrative Building on Viscount.
The goal of the Town Hall Meeting was to ignite discussion on the sources of mortgage foreclosure for working class families and to find local solutions for those problems. One result of the forum was to link up industry professionals with members of the community in order to provide options for preventing foreclosure.
El Paso is one of the top 10 metropolitan cities hardest hit by foreclosures, according to an ACORN study, entitled “Foreclosure Exposure 2: The Cost to our Cities and Neighborhoods.” The study analyzes data from private and federal sources to predict the real economic impact of foreclosures on 96 metropolitan areas if financial institutions and governments do not act immediately to minimize the damage.
Cynthia Varela, a lower valley resident, said her grandmother is one of those homeowners. “She is at risk of losing her house, so when I was listening to the radio and I heard that there was going to be this meeting for people in her situation, I knew we had to go. It was really a blessing because we had no idea where else to turn.”
ACORN and its sister organization ACORN Housing Corporation, a non-profit HUD-certified home counseling agency, have been receiving increasing numbers of inquiries from concerned homeowners and first time home buyers. El Paso ACORN has tied into a national campaign to curb the foreclosure crisis through statewide legislation and direct action targeting companies that can do more to work with families undergoing financial hardships.
ACORN Housing conducts Foreclosure Prevention Workshops on Mondays and Wednesday at 5pm in Spanish and English at 6000 Welch, Suite 15.
This campaign is part of a broader Economic Justice strategy that ACORN is executing in El Paso. The organization offers free tax preparation, benefits screening and hospital debt counseling.
Anyone who wants to schedule an appointment should call ACORN’s Financial Justice Center at (915) 772-4487.