LOS ANGELES—The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) launched a foreclosure prevention, outreach and assistance program to provide services for Asian- Americans who may be facing the grim possibility of losing their homes to foreclosure.
"With the holidays approaching, we want people to know that there is hope," said Dennis Arguelles, Director of Community Economic Development of the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA). "There are services available to them so they can keep their home."
Now more than ever, people are losing their homes due to the current housing crisis and the US economic downturn. Many have been laid off or can’t afford a mortgage that suddenly flipped over. During the second quarter of this year, more than 63,000 people lost their homes to foreclosure.
According to Lori Gay of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Service, every 15 minutes a family loses their home due to foreclosure in Los Angeles County. In the state, every two minutes someone is losing a home.
"This is a disaster of unforetold depth, mass, width, height this is beyond everything we have dealt with in our lifetime," said Gay during a press conference at SIPA.
"Far too many lenders gave loans without proper documentation of income or without the proper debt to income ratio," added Dr. Judy Chu, the chair of the State Board of Equalization. "They played fast and loose and now we are facing the serious consequences. When the housing bubble burst, the housing industry reached a 20-year high [foreclosures] in the second quarter, an increase of 261 percent of a year earlier. The 63,000 families that lost their homes are true victims. Many of them are immigrants. They face the grim prospect of losing everything. That’s why we need this assistance."
The A3PCON foreclosure program received a $50,000 grant to fund the program. The program will include Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese translators to assist immigrants in danger of losing their homes in contacting the bank or their mortgage handlers.
A3PCON is a coalition of 35 community-based organizations in the Greater Los Angeles area. The coalition serves as a voice and provides services to the large Asian-American community.
( Published on December 13, 2008 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A4 )
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