Message from Philadelphia Sheriff John D. Green A Declaration of Neighborhood Security: Safeguarding The Right to Protect Our Homes

If you have taken a leisurely stroll through your neighborhood lately, you may have noticed the signs that the sluggish economy has begun to take its toll.

More of our neighbors, our families and our friends are falling behind on their mortgages and losing their homes to sheriff’s sale. My staff and I watch the suffering every day and witness the heart-wrenching scenes as families lose their primary means of wealth-building and face eviction.

In the last few years, layoffs, corporate downsizing, and an increase in the number of second and third mortgages have fueled a dramatic increase in mortgage foreclosures in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania, and increased the number of properties sold at sheriff’s sale to repay the mortgagor’s debt.

Recent trends are disturbing, according to Erik Randolph, budget analyst for the state’s House Committee on Appropriations, which recently released a report stating that the number of mortgage proceedings initiated in Pennsylvania is now at levels not seen since the mid-1980s, and Pennsylvania’s rate now exceeds the national average.

In Philadelphia, the number of sheriff’s sale properties has increased from an average of 300 to 400 per month to more than 1,000. The City’s broad and diverse networks of Housing Counseling Agencies and Credit Counseling Services have been our front-line defense, but their staffs are overloaded, increasingly frustrated by reams of red tape, and slowed by the proliferation of voice mail and procedural barriers.

These agencies desperately require this City’s attention and its help. Today, I am announcing a new initiative designed to slow the dramatic rise in local foreclosures, and to keep more financially troubled, but credit-worthy, borrowers in their homes.

This Declaration of Neighborhood Stability requires the participation of local officials, state legislators, congressional leaders and ordinary citizens who wish to protect and maintain the security and stability of their neighborhoods.

The plan has three basic components:

First, a massive publicity campaign is being launched to alert borrowers who are falling behind in their payments to the steps they must take to delay foreclosure and negotiate a suitable repayment plan. Research indicates that when lenders and housing counseling groups provide intervention earlier, the foreclosure is easier to avoid.

Second, a community-wide coalition will be created to look at short-term and long-term legislative solutions dealing with issues such as:
      Attorney fees
      Need for third-party loans to help provide temporary mortgage assistance to FHA borrowers
      Education

Third, the plan seeks to rally community support and provide immediate relief in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the rising tide of foreclosures.

I hope you will join me in this campaign to safeguard the property rights of borrowers and protect and secure our City’s neighborhoods. If you are a homeowner who has fallen upon hard times, don’t delay. Seek assistance with your mortgage and your finances immediately.  Contact your neighborhood housing counseling agency for assistance. 

Thank you.