Governor Ted Strickland is Helping Residents to Avoid Foreclosure in Ohio

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland was instrumental in garnering $172 million dollars for Ohio residents to use in helping us to prevent even more foreclosures.

With the recent creation of a foreclosure prevention tool called the "Ohio Hardest Hit Fund," Ohioans have yet another resource that can be used to help try and prevent foreclosures. This fund is being administered through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, or OHFA.

As many of us have learned first hand, with high unemployment comes the increased risk of foreclosure, and since we have been hit personally with long term unemployment with no hope for improvement, we have been struggling for two years to improve our financial situation in order to help us fend off foreclosure. This plan launches September 27th 2010 so if you are a homeowner in trouble, please go to this site and find out if there is anything that can be done to help you!

In reviewing the new fund on line at their website: www.ohiohome.org I have learned that this program has a much wider window of program availability within which many more homeowners may fit when compared to other foreclosure prevention programs. For example there are some programs that may help homeowners but you need to be so financially desperate to even qualify for these programs that they just cannot help you if there is even a dime more income over poverty level.

One of the problems we have seen with many of these programs is that the information on how to get to the help you need is really quite disjointed. There are so many different local, regional, and national programs that it is almost impossible for the average Joe to figure out the best path all on their own. So far there does not seem to be one simple "clearinghouse" location where Ohio homeowners can get all of the information that we need before we find ourselves in crisis. This is exactly why most often people will tend to take the easier path. This path can often be the one which actually leads to foreclosure.

For example if you contact a professional in the business of refinancing you may end up with a lower interest rate but still have an unreasonable monthly payment. In the very recent past the home lending rules were leaving people little room for any kind of financial failure. As a result some folks have lost their homes when one person in the family lost their income.

Imagine being in our situation when we both lost our jobs in the same month! I will be honest we did not know about many of the programs that were in place which may have been used to help us sooner, but after learning more about this foreclosure problem since then, we are definitely more knowledgeable about the foreclosure process in the state of Ohio.

In my humble opinion Governor Strickland has been diligent at working with federal administration in Washington to keep some focus on the plight of Ohioans who find them selves struggling to gain employment at or even near the level we were at before the financial meltdown. Obviously some of these programs will be too little too late for some and for that it seems there is no easy answer or relief, but for those who are now finding themselves in this terrible situation there is at least some hope through these financial support programs which may prove to be useful to many other Ohio homeowners.

So how has Governor Strickland helped us to avoid foreclosure? His administration has been fighting hard for Ohioans to help us keep our homes even thought our economy is still not recovering as quickly as it needs to. First he helped to create a task force here in Ohio back in 2007 utilizing committee participation between a broad group of representatives from State and Local Government, Financial Industry, and Non-Profit support groups. It was this task force which was charged by Governor Strickland to come up with plans that could help Ohioans who were struggling with the issue of foreclosure. The task force summarized a list of methods that could be implemented immediately which would directly help homeowners in trouble.

Some of those recommendations were eventually implemented and ultimately they have helped to create the Ohio Hardest Hit Fund that is just now coming on-line. This fund which is federally funded at the current level of $172 Million is to be used for directly helping homeowners out of the financial hole they may find themselves in which is causing them to be threatened with foreclosure.

Lastly, this topic is very important to our Ohio government and State representatives and you should not be afraid to contact any one of them to get advice help and support. Odds are they will know exactly who to put you in touch with. Here is a link that you can use to contact our elected leaders:
www.ohio.gov/how/government.stm#4

To learn more about this "Ohio Foreclosure Prevention Task Force Final Report" please use the following link:
http://www.com.ohio.gov/admn/docs/FPTFFinalReport.pdf

If you are in immediate need contact this office which helps Ohio residents prevent foreclosure www.savethedream.ohio.gov

Also check out the Ohio Home Rescue fund here:
www.nhscleveland.org/programs/OhioHomeRescueFund.htm

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