By Dan Verbeck, KCUR News
Kansas City, MO – We can fix most of the problems! That's the message from a collection of non-profit and government agencies portraying themselves as solvers of a current American tragedy of home foreclosures.
Top of the list of fixers' Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City,With a program Connie Short of Grain Valley wishes she, her husband and their 8 and 9 year old daughters had found earlier. Their house of 3 years?
Short says: I have lost it. ..it went for sale on the courthouse steps yesterday
The Short's got into a variable rate mortage and ran behind on payments that rose from $620 to $13 hundred a month. A risk assessment for new foreclosures in 2008 prepared by the Federal Reserve shows highest risk in a swath from Grandview northward through Raytown and the heart of Kansas City. It extends toward Independence and Sugar Creek. High risk pockets are found in Kansas City Kansas and an area of the Northland, East from Avondale.
Thursday this week.. there will be a foreclosure counseling clinic at Penn Valley Community college, 2 to 8 pm. Connie Short could tell those in trouble a few things. In her words:
.. I wasn't aware, to the extent of counseling relief that was available out there. I probably would have taken advantage of it..
Executive Director of Homefree USA Elma Warrick cautions against seeking counseling from lenders who may have been unscrupulous from the beginning..to solve problems with mortgages going bad. All metro area county homeowners are included in the free financial counseling program. Kansas City Councilmembers Cindy Circo and Sharon Sanders Brooks are vocal proponents of the initiative. It will be held June 12, Penn Valley Community College, 3201 Southwest Trafficway. Participants include the Federal Reserve Bank. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Local Investment Commission.