Homeowner help at Pats' home field
Fed to host event at Gillette Stadium
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has picked an unusual location to host an event to help homeowners prevent foreclosure: Gillette Stadium.
The Aug. 12 event will be held in a corporate clubhouse overlooking the field and stands, and Boston Fed officials hope the novelty of the location will draw out people who may be embarrassed about their situations and reluctant to come forward.
"People have an obvious affinity for Gillette Stadium," said Fed spokesman Thomas Lavelle. "It does have symbolism that we think may very well draw the reluctant borrower who feels isolated about the pickle they're in."
The event will offer homeowners with mortgage problems an opportunity to meet with representatives of 16 mortgage servicing companies, including Citigroup, Countrywide Home Loan, Saxon Mortgage, Option One, and Washington Mutual.
While no homeowners will be guaranteed they can modify their loans, "it is a chance to really have the borrower and the servicer come together," Lavelle said.
This is the second attempt by the Fed office to directly help borrowers saddled with mortgages they can't afford. Another effort last year to encourage borrowers to contact a list of lenders willing to consider refinancing drew 1,300 responses but resulted in just 19 refinancings.
This is an unusually public event for the Boston Fed, which is part of the nation's regulatory system and helps to ensure smooth operations of banking and financial networks. Under the leadership of its new president, Eric Rosengren, the Boston bank has waded into local economic and housing matters, particularly the subprime mortgage mess that has led to so many foreclosures. Currently, Massachusetts residents are losing homes to foreclosure at a pace of about 1,100 every month.
Lavelle predicted hundreds of New England borrowers - perhaps more than 1,000 - would attend, because Gillette Stadium is centrally located. He said Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a member of the Boston Fed's board, provided the venue at no charge.
Randy Wilburn, a Boston subprime mortgage counselor, said the program will only work if the Boston Fed persuades homeowners to bring all the necessary mortgage papers, correspondence, and other financial records so their situations can get a full review. "The stories don't matter as much as the information does," he said.
He added that the event would enable borrowers to speak to people from the servicing firms, which accept the monthly payments and handle mortgage duties on behalf of lenders or the Wall Street investors who hold the loans. Housing activists and some delinquent homeowners have complained that getting through to the servicing companies via telephone is extremely difficult and that some owners who have reached out have failed to receive help.
Borrowers who call servicers "get sent back and forth between collections and other departments that have nothing to do with the loss-mitigation process. You end up spending time talking to a person who can't even help you," Wilburn said. There is so much work to do, he said, that he thinks the Fed should hold the event every quarter for the next two or three years.
The event will be in the 60,000-square-foot Fidelity Investments Clubhouse East, where fans gather indoors during games for a drink or to warm up by the fireplaces. Credit counselors from Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development and the Hope Now Alliance, a national organization, will be on hand, as well as specialists who can help homeowners with their rising fuel costs.
To get the word out, the Fed plans to spend about $50,000 to buy radio time, and the ads will be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, Lavelle said.
While many Massachusetts residents have already lost their homes, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said, "It's never late. This is all about saying we're going to do it."
Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.
