Boca Raton, FL, February 10, 2010 –(PR.com)– Hospice is not simply part of a senior’s circumstance. Hospice also affects children. People of all ages may need hospice care, or need to apply hospice care to a loved one at some point in their life no matter how long or short that life may be. Palliative Organizations have developed hospice missions and centers to children in many countries to provide specialty care and reduce suffering endured by youngsters with life-threatening illnesses, including AIDS and cancer. Without access to the care they need, people suffer horrific and life crippling levels of distress and pain. Hospice aids by relieving suffering physically, emotionally and spiritually, performing vital work on the front line of caring for people who face the end of life.

The executive producer of the series said, “Hospice topics are oftentimes unpleasant though necessary. Education surrounding how groups are managing care across the globe should be a great concern to everyone. Insight HD is going to produce a wide range of life-saving and love-giving programs that focus on services given in order to promote education on this topic.” Many people facing terminal illness experience some of their joyful moments at Hospice because they’ve received appropriate nutrition, pain control, medical care, counseling and loving attention. Sometimes seeing this in action will raise volunteer awareness for mission trips to countries that need help, or even spark a community to volunteer in a local hospital in their area. But all this requires education to be present, and Insight HD will be producing this new series with that aim – awareness.

About Insight HD Hugh Downs:

The Insight HD series is distributed to Public TV through a national distributor and highlights the best and most compelling educational stories. Each segment is hosted by America’s most well-known anchor, Mr. Hugh Downs. For more information visit www.insighthdtv.com. Insight HD Address: 595 S. Federal Hwy, Suite 600, Boca Raton, FL 33432.

Contact Information:
Insight HD

Cobo a scene of desperation
Social service agencies are bracing for more troubles
1. http://www.freep.com/article/20091008/NEWS05/910080464/1322/Cobo-a-scene-of-desperation
The economic tsunami washing over metro Detroit swept its casualties to the doors of Cobo Center on Wednesday in the form of 35,000 people so desperate for help with mortgage and utility bills that threats were made, fights broke out and people were nearly trampled.
Some were treated by emergency medical workers on site.
It was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how deeply joblessness and the home foreclosure crisis have pushed people from the lower and middle ends of the economic scale to seek help wherever they can.
City officials said a total of about 65,000 people over the past few days have gotten applications — due next Wednesday — for a share of $15.2 million in federal stimulus money to help people avoid foreclosure or quickly rebound from homelessness.
Ultimately, as few as 3,500 people may receive the help.
Area social service agencies worry the problem will worsen because of lingering economic woes and the masses of people who could soon run out of unemployment benefits.
Racquel Sawyers, 35, a laid-off engineer for General Motors and Chrysler, went home after seeing the crush at Cobo. “I’m just trying to do what I can right now,” she said.
Kelli Phillips tries to make the numbers work: $650 a month for rent, $300 to $500 a month to heat her old house, plus food for her and her boys, ages 6 and 17.
The unemployed office worker does it all on $1,000 a month, plus “borrowing, doing odd jobs,” said Phillips, 42, of Detroit. “I clean houses for people.”
That’s why she stood in the chaos of thousands lined up outside Cobo Center on Wednesday, hoping for a chance at $3,000 in assistance through a Detroit housing and utility payment program funded through the federal stimulus program.
The huge lines were a sobering glimpse into the deep economic trouble in metro Detroit, but they were no surprise to social service agencies struggling to provide food, clothing, utility and housing assistance to people living in the state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate — 15.2% in August — and a city where joblessness is approaching 30%.
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Folks are out of work, out of money and running out of hope.
“People seem to be falling between the cracks of government programs that are supposed to help them,” said Kristin Seefeldt, a research scientist for the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Seefeldt, who is following 45 low-income Detroit women for a study on the recession’s impact on poor people, said the group is a microcosm of what’s happening across the state and country. They’re losing jobs and having a hard time finding new ones. More than half owe money to utility companies, ranging from $200 to several thousand, that they’re unable to pay because groceries, rent and food come first.
“They may be able to keep up with current payments, but there’s always this back debt that they owe,” Seefeldt said. “People are struggling. They’re really struggling. Although, I would say many of them would say, ‘At least I have a roof over my head.’ “
Metro Detroit’s economic troubles are severe. Michigan unemployment was at 15.2% in August — and 27.8% in Detroit proper.
“You have to go back to the 1982 recession to find unemployment levels at or above the levels we’re at in 2009,” said Bruce Weaver, an economic analyst for the state’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.
Weaver said the state lost 330,000 nonfarm jobs between August 2008 and August 2009, a 7.9% drop. Of those, 142,000 were in manufacturing, a 25% drop in that sector.
Social service agencies say they’re swamped with requests for aid.
“It’s probably the worst hunger crisis we’ve seen in our history,” said Anne Schenk, spokeswoman for Detroit’s Gleaners Community Food Bank, the state’s largest food bank, serving five counties in southeast Michigan.
Schenk said charitable groups are bracing for even more troubles as the long-term jobless run out of unemployment benefits — as many as 50,000 in the next few months in Michigan if the federal government doesn’t approve an extension.
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“That, we’re anticipating, is going to throw a lot more families into poverty,” Schenk said. “It’s going to happen three months from now, or six months from now, or within the year. We are looking at every strategy available to us to get more food and get it out” to agencies that provide food directly.
Heading into 2009, Michigan was already in bad shape. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2008, 1.4 million Michiganders lived below the poverty line, about 14% of the state’s population. In Detroit, the number was 33%. The bureau puts the poverty level at about $22,000 in yearly household income for a family of four.
Bill Sullivan, director of 211, the services hotline of United Way for Southeastern Michigan, said the region is being jolted by job losses and a culture and society that are unsustainable.
“What we saw at Cobo today is nothing new” to people struggling to get by, Sullivan said. “It’s new to everyone else. The people who are most affected by a lack of jobs, what they experienced today is what they experience every day on a certain level.”
Robyn Smith, community relations director for the Coalition on Temporary Shelter, said the tremendous crush of people didn’t sadden her.
“I’m happy because there’s something available,” she said as she collected filled-out applications from a doorway guarded by a Detroit police officer to keep people from slipping in. COTS provides 44,000 shelter nights a year to the city’s homeless people, about 40% families and about half working poor people.
People fainted and others fought as police tried to keep people calm and cooperative in line at Cobo, with some waiting since Tuesday night. By 11:45 a.m., Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s office sent out word for people to stay away.
Inside Cobo, lines led up to a crush of people outside the Riverview Ballroom, where Detroit Planning & Development employees were to hand out applications. At about 10:30 a.m., a shoving match broke out in the crowd, and many of the people bolted away.
“It’s a disaster here,” City Council candidate Gary Brown said. Brown, a former Detroit Police assistant chief, handed out bottles of water to those in line. “This is dangerous. Very unorganized, very dangerous.”
Police said only a few people were hospitalized for medical issues or minor injuries in the skirmishing.
Camille Lewis and Lakia Montgomery, both 25 and longtime friends, moved in together to save money after Lewis was laid off from her Aramark job cooking at Cobo and Montgomery was let go from an adult foster care position.
“When that happened, we had to move in together,” Lewis said. “That’s what’s making it easier.”

Contact MATT HELMS: 313-222-1450 or mhelms@freepress.com. Free Press data analyst Kristi Tanner contributed to this report.
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Deutsche Bank Report Predicts That 48 Percent of Homeowners Will Be Upside Down in 2011
August 14, 2009
Posted In: Foreclosure , Loan Modifications
By Howard | Nassiri, PC on August 14, 2009 12:49 PM | Permalink
An analysis released Aug. 4 by Deutsche Bank AG suggests that 48% of U.S. homeowners will owe more than their homes are worth by 2011, Bloomberg News reported Aug. 5. The prediction would mean that the current rate of underwater homeowners, 26%, would nearly double in the next 18 months, for a total of 25 million homes affected. Housing markets that saw particularly big bubbles during the housing boom would be worst hit, the report said, with underwater rates at 90% in markets including Modesto, Merced, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fl. and Miami.
The analysis also predicted that the downward trend in home prices is far from over, with nationwide values predicted to hit bottom in the first quarter of 2011. That’s a problem for everyone, a related LA Times blog post pointed out, because it will depress the housing market, consumer spending and thus the economy generally. Foreclosures would rise among people with catastrophic financial problems like unemployment, of course — but another worry is that severe negative equity would encourage rational homeowners to simply stop making payments on their inflated mortgages. In response, the Times blogger predicted, lawmakers are likely to push for more government measures, especially a return to the mortgage cramdown proposal that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principal owed on a primary home loan for borrowers in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
As Highland loan modification lawyers, we hope this report is wrong — but we know there are good reasons to be pessimistic. Foreclosures have slowed in 2009, but experts believe that’s at least in part because of government foreclosure moratoria, the difficulty of selling foreclosed properties and banks gambling that the economy will improve. Our Chino loan modification attorneys hope it does too — but if the government decides to step in, we believe legislation allowing bankruptcy cramdowns would be a good solution. While homeowners must file for bankruptcy to get a cramdown — a drastic step that’s not appropriate for everybody — we believe the mere existence of cramdowns as an option would help inspire some banks to pursue meaningful, sustainable loan workouts with at-risk borrowers.
Howard | Nassiri LLP has an active practice negotiating loan modifications on behalf of homeowners facing default and foreclosure. Even without the threat of a cramdown during a later Chapter 13 bankruptcy, our Dana Point loan modification attorneys have a strong record of good results pursing loan modifications, even when banks have proven difficult to work with. Because we are attorneys, we can and will sue banks if we have evidence that they have violated our clients’ rights — and banks know it. As a result, we have been able to negotiate changes to many homeowners’ loans, including changes to the structures of subprime loans; changes to interest rates; and modifications to the life of the loan. In every case, our goal is to get the homeowners a change that lowers the monthly mortgage payment to a reachable amount and allows them to keep their home for good.
If you’re facing foreclosure and your lender is delaying or denying meaningful help, you should call Howard | Nassiri instead. For a free, confidential consultation, please contact us through our Web site or call toll-free at 1-800-872-5925 today.
For More information on how to have your Home Loan Modified call Christian Kelch at 866-945-6722 x1

U.S. to lean on mortgage companies
Trying to convert more troubled home loans to lower monthly payments
http://ping.fm/BTQYb

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their homes, officials said Saturday.
The administration will announce its expanded program on Monday, Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said.
“We are taking additional steps to enhance servicer transparency and accountability,” Reilly said. She said the goal was to increase the rate that troubled home loans were converted into new loans with lower monthly payments.
Industry officials said the new effort would include increased pressure on mortgage companies to accelerate loan modifications by highlighting firms that are lagging in that area.
The Treasury is also expected to announce that it will wait until the loan modifications are permanent before paying cash incentives to mortgage companies that lower loan payments.
$1,000 to mortgage companies
Under the $75 billion Treasury program, companies that agree to lower payments for troubled borrowers collect $1,000 initially from the government for each loan, followed by $1,000 annually for up to three years.
The government support, which is provided from the $700 billion financial bailout program, is aimed at providing cash incentives for mortgage providers to accept smaller mortgage payments rather than foreclosing on homes.
The program has come under heavy criticism for failing to do enough to attack a tidal wave of foreclosures. Analysts said the foreclosure crisis is likely to persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of their homes.
Rising foreclosures depress home prices and threaten the sustainability of the fledgling economic recovery.
A report last week from the Mortgage Bankers Association found that 14 percent of homeowners with mortgages were either behind on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, a record level for the ninth straight quarter.
More families threatened
The Congressional Oversight Panel, a committee that monitors spending under Treasury’s bailout program, concluded in a report last month that foreclosures are now threatening families who took out conventional, fixed-rate mortgages and put down payments of 10 to 20 percent on homes that would have been within their means in a normal market.
Treasury’s program, known as the Home Affordable Modification Program, “is targeted at the housing crisis as it existed six months ago, rather than as it exists right now,” the report said.
Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, said the industry supported many of the changes Treasury was proposing.
Click for related content
But he said the foreclosure problem, which began with heavy defaults on subprime mortgages, was expanding to more traditional types of mortgages because of unemployment which has now hit a 26-year high of 10.2 percent.
“The subprime problem has regrettably morphed into an unemployment problem,” Talbott said. He said there was no government program to help the unemployed who are in danger of losing their homes but “many private lenders are modifying loans for the unemployed on their own.”
Treasury’s Reilly said the expanded program would, among other steps, make more aid available to struggling borrowers and expand the number of organizations providing help.
For More information on how to have your Home Loan Modified call Christian Kelch at 866-945-6722 x1

U.S. to lean on mortgage companies
Trying to convert more troubled home loans to lower monthly payments
http://ping.fm/w2wfH

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their homes, officials said Saturday.
The administration will announce its expanded program on Monday, Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said.
“We are taking additional steps to enhance servicer transparency and accountability,” Reilly said. She said the goal was to increase the rate that troubled home loans were converted into new loans with lower monthly payments.
Industry officials said the new effort would include increased pressure on mortgage companies to accelerate loan modifications by highlighting firms that are lagging in that area.
The Treasury is also expected to announce that it will wait until the loan modifications are permanent before paying cash incentives to mortgage companies that lower loan payments.
$1,000 to mortgage companies
Under the $75 billion Treasury program, companies that agree to lower payments for troubled borrowers collect $1,000 initially from the government for each loan, followed by $1,000 annually for up to three years.
The government support, which is provided from the $700 billion financial bailout program, is aimed at providing cash incentives for mortgage providers to accept smaller mortgage payments rather than foreclosing on homes.
The program has come under heavy criticism for failing to do enough to attack a tidal wave of foreclosures. Analysts said the foreclosure crisis is likely to persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of their homes.
Rising foreclosures depress home prices and threaten the sustainability of the fledgling economic recovery.
A report last week from the Mortgage Bankers Association found that 14 percent of homeowners with mortgages were either behind on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, a record level for the ninth straight quarter.
More families threatened
The Congressional Oversight Panel, a committee that monitors spending under Treasury’s bailout program, concluded in a report last month that foreclosures are now threatening families who took out conventional, fixed-rate mortgages and put down payments of 10 to 20 percent on homes that would have been within their means in a normal market.
Treasury’s program, known as the Home Affordable Modification Program, “is targeted at the housing crisis as it existed six months ago, rather than as it exists right now,” the report said.
Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, said the industry supported many of the changes Treasury was proposing.
Click for related content
But he said the foreclosure problem, which began with heavy defaults on subprime mortgages, was expanding to more traditional types of mortgages because of unemployment which has now hit a 26-year high of 10.2 percent.
“The subprime problem has regrettably morphed into an unemployment problem,” Talbott said. He said there was no government program to help the unemployed who are in danger of losing their homes but “many private lenders are modifying loans for the unemployed on their own.”
Treasury’s Reilly said the expanded program would, among other steps, make more aid available to struggling borrowers and expand the number of organizations providing help.
For More information on how to have your Home Loan Modified call Christian Kelch at 866-945-6722 x1

Government Loan Mod Programs are Powerless

Because they have no “TEETH.” There is no reason for the bank to play along. That’s why it is so important to get an attorney on your side if you want RESULTS! Check out this report:

U.S. Home Foreclosure Mediation in Jeopardy: Report

Wed Sep 23, 20091:52pm EDT
NEWYORK (Reuters) – A slew of state and local home foreclosure mediation programs have enormous potential to help homeowners, but most suffer from lack of industry accountability, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The nonprofit NationalConsumerLawCenter, or NCLC, in a new review of 25 foreclosure mediation programs in 14 states, warns that there is no data to confirm that foreclosure mediation programs anywhere have led to a substantial number of affordable and sustainable loan modifications.

The NCLC found existing programs routinely fail to impose significant obligations on mortgage servicers.

“Without the imposition of these obligations, it is unlikely that mediations will lead to fewer foreclosures,” the report said.

“The programs we considered often lack mandatory rules and fail to impose sanctions for non compliance with what minimal rules exist,” the group said.

They also do not require servicers to provide information substantiating a right to foreclose and do not mandate analyses of loan modification alternatives, with many setting unreasonable procedural barriers that restrict large numbers of homeowners from participating, according to the NCLC.

The report, “State and Local Foreclosure Media Programs: Can They Save Homes?,” reviewed foreclosure mediation programs in California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Many programs shared common problems.

The report’s author, NCLC staff attorney Geoffrey Walsh said under most of the existing foreclosure mediation programs, servicers have all the discretion and homeowners have little or no power.

“If the programs continue to demand little or no accountability from servicers, they will likely go the way of federal efforts to control foreclosures that have failed as a result of relying on voluntary compliance by the lending industry,” Walsh wrote.

“It is unfortunate that the industry has so far prevailed in blocking Congressional action on court-ordered loan modifications, the one step that would level the playing field for consumers and ensure the necessary accountability from all parties,” he said.

“With the industry’s encouragement, crucial elements of accountability have been omitted from the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Now, over six months after its inception, this new federal initiative serves only a small percentage of eligible homeowners,” the report said.

In the report, the NCLC said their review of the status of foreclosure mediation programs has shown there can be a danger in viewing them as an alternative to legislation that directs servicers and mortgage holders to make affordable loan modifications.

For example, bankruptcy code amendments allowing courts to modify mortgages through reduction of principal would markedly increase the numbers of affordable modifications, the report said.

“Federal legislation setting out clear directives for enforcement of the HAMP program would be far more effective that expecting state and local mediation systems to oversee enforcement of this federal program,” the report said.

(Reporting by Julie Haviv; editing by Padraic Cassidy)
http://ping.fm/8tk9a
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Warren: Housing Market Getting Worse
Posted Oct 16, 2009 12:11pm EDT by Aaron Task in Recession, Banking, Housing
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/355866/Warren-Housing-Market-Getting-Worse%3B_ylt%3DAhnC_kScCC.XW_5vK9_6CO5O7sMF%3B_ylu%3DX3oDMTE1YjMxbmdmBHBvcwM1BHNlYwN0ZWNoVGlja2VyBHNsawN3YXJyZW5ob3VzaW4-?tickers=xhb,%5EDJI,TOL,LEN,KBH
There’s been a lot of talk lately about a recovery in the housing market – even reports of bubbles re-inflating in certain markets.
Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, isn’t buying it.
“We see things getting worse in the housing market,” Warren says, citing the pernicious effects of foreclosures, which rose 5% in the third quarter to a total of 937,840, according to RealtyTrac.
“The long-term impact of high foreclosure rates on our housing market and overall economy would be disastrous,” Warren warns, citing estimates that 10 to 12 million U.S. homes could ultimately go into foreclosure. “We have to get foreclosures under control.”
Why the sense of urgency? A single foreclosure property brings prices down an average of $5000 for every house in a two-block radius and costs investors an average of $120,000, she says.
In its most recent report, Warren’s panel criticized the Treasury’s foreclosure modification efforts as “inadequate” and “targeted at the housing crisis as it existed six months ago, rather than as it exits right now.”
Specifically, the Treasury program is targeted at subprime borrowers hit with ballooning mortgage payments vs. prime borrowers hit by job losses. As for the “morality question” of whether the government should be bailing out homeowners, Warren says “I’m passed that,” noting “there’s plenty of unfairness to go around.”
More importantly, “ultimately the American taxpayer — thanks to Fannie, Freddie and FHA — is going to stand behind many of these mortgage,” she says. “We need to be thinking more globally what is cheapest possible way to bring this crisis to an end.”
One solution: Force investors holders these mortgages who may be betting on a government bailout to take a haircut, as occurred with GM and Chrysler creditors.
“That’s why they call it investing,” Warren says. “You make profits in good times, take losses in bad times. That’s the fundamental part of this [modification effort] that’s missing.”
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Subject: How Banks Continue to Hurt Families

This is unbelievable, and yet another reason why you need legal representation to get the job done:

Ariz. AG Terry Goddard: Complaints ‘Very Troubling’

POSTED: 1:07 pm MSTSeptember 22, 2009
UPDATED: 1:26 pm MSTSeptember 22, 2009

PHOENIX — Many homeowners say their banks won’t call them back regarding a loan modification; however, some homeowners are paying hundreds of dollars for a loan modification only to have the bank foreclose on them.

Valley resident Miguel Lozania said he was approved for a loan=2 0modification, so he signed his paperwork and sent the bank the $900 fee.

“It sounded like it was going to work,” he said. “I even got a letter from IndyMac Bank saying they were going to do a modification.”

IndyMac foreclosed on his house anyway, selling the home for $70,000. Lozania’s original loan was for $205,000.

Another Valley resident, Joan Hoyt, said she wanted to refinance her loan before the interest rate on her current mortgage reset.

Her lender, Washington Mutual, said it just needed a $750 application fee; Hoyt paid it. As it turned out, Washington Mutual did not offer the type of loan Hoyt applied for.

The bank did not offer a refund of the application fee.

Homeowners across Arizona have written to 5 Investigates to complain about lenders losing modification documents, changing requirements for modifications and being unable to answer basic questions about the process.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard stopped short of saying the banks’ behavior is criminal; however, he called the complaints “very troubling.”

“It may constitute deception on the part of the individual company that’s leading these people along,” he said.

Goddard said his office is swamped with complaints that he believes many of the larger banks should have been prepared for.

“What we’re seeing is a financial industry that doesn’t want to handle this problem,” he said.

He also encouraged people who are having trouble with their modifications to contact his office.

As for Lozania, five hours before the story was set to air Monday, a spokeswoman for IndyMac’s new owner One West Bank called 5 Investigates to say the company had made a mistake, and they are rescinding Lozania’s foreclosure.

Washington Mutual refunded $750 to Hoyt after 5 Investigates contacted the bank about the investigation.

Click here to watch the video:
http://ping.fm/mqNPY

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE – News; NYSE:FRE – News), the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a “prolonged deterioration” in housing.

http://ping.fm/cWhWx

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Only the power of an Attorney-Backed Loan Mod firm can smash through this ridiculous log-jam of greedy bankers:

Bank Of America Faces Complaints over Mortgages and Stalled Loan Modifications
BY HARRIET JOHNSON BRACKEY
Sun Sentinel

Hundreds of struggling Florida homeowners have filed complaints with Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in the past year about failed or stalled home mortgage loan modifications with Bank of America.

Angry borrowers, desperate to hold on to their homes, say they’ve made dozens of calls to their lender and spent months asking for a change in their loan terms, only to be denied or to learn that Bank of America revoked their loan modifications a few months after they reached a deal.

“I wrote letters to the governor, I called the bank every single month,” said Yvonne McBride, a disabled former state worker who received a loan modification for the Sunrise home she shares with husband Herman Acosta. But the bank retracted the deal — after, she said, she’d paid more than $9,200 to cover mortgage payments through next January.

“When they said I was noncompliant [with the terms of the loan] I said, `What?’ ” McBride said.

The Attorney General’s Office has logged 452 complaints about Bank of America, Florida’s largest mortgage lender, concerning mortgages and loan modifications. With its acquisition of Countrywide Financial last year, Bank of America had almost 82,000 mortgage loans originated in Florida worth $15.3 billion in 2008, according to National Mortgage News.

Next largest is JP Morgan Chase, which had almost 69,000 mortgage loans in Florida. JP Morgan Chase has 69 complaints on file at the Attorney General’s Office.

Wells Fargo, which acquired Wachovia, has a combined 51 complaints on file and almost 57,000 mortgage loans in Florida.

Bank of America’s spokesman Rick Simon would not comment on the volume of complaints. But he said that in individual cases, some customers are not providing necessary financial information or have not been communicating with the bank.

“Bank of America has been more aggressively pushing loan modification and foreclosure assistance than anyone else,” said economist Ken Thomas, an independent banking consultant in Miami. Thomas is not a consultant to Bank of America. He said the bank may have more complaints than others because it is interacting with more borrowers.

“The biggest lender in South Florida was Countrywide and they are under more scrutiny and making a bigger effort than anyone else,” he said.

The Attorney General’s Office is responding individually to those who complain, providing borrowers with information on mortgage fraud, the state’s legal settlement with Bank of America calling for foreclosure relief, and suggesting that borrowers contact federal regulators and local attorneys. The complaints are also being sent to the lender involved.

Spokeswoman Ryan Wiggins of the Attorney General’s Office said the complaints are being reviewed to determine the validity of the claims.

One year ago, McCollum, who is a candidate for governor, reached a settlement with Bank of America that was supposed to provide $150 million in foreclosure relief nationwide for its borrowers.

Under the terms of the settlement, Bank of America was to launch a loan modification program that would help 52,000 Florida homeowners get new mortgage loans.

“Bank of America has stated its willingness to cooperate in our investigation,” Wiggins said.

But until the complaints from borrowers have been reviewed, Wiggins said, she could not answer the question of whether Bank of America is complying with the settlement.

Bank of America told the state it has modified more than 10,000 loans in Florida through June of this year.

Millions of troubled borrowers nationwide are candidates for loan modifications.

In Washington, the Obama administration has promoted its program to entice lenders to offer loan modifications as a key tactic to turn around the troubled housing market. The Making Home Affordable program — which says payments are past due on 3.1 million loans nationwide — pays lenders to offer modifications.

But borrowers in Florida have run into a logjam. Stories abound of loan modifications taking months or even a year to complete.

The complaints at McCollum’s office also include those from borrowers like McBride who say they completed a deal, only to have a bank revoke it.

McBride provided the Sun Sentinel with copies of notarized paperwork showing the loan modification process had been completed for her home. It took place in February.

Of McBride, Bank of America spokesman Simon said in an e-mail, “The loan modification had to be declined because the borrowers did not provide necessary documentation of financial information in a timely fashion, despite three contacts with a home retention specialist over a 12-day period.”

McBride said she doesn’t know what the bank is talking about.

Nicholas Gonzalez-Pardo has filed complaints with the attorney general and the federal agency that regulates national banks, the Comptroller of the Currency, over a similar story, saying Bank of America accepted his payments for six months for his home in Sebastian and then told him he did not qualify for a loan modification.

“I feel like I have nowhere to turn, the deck is stacked against me,” he said.

Bank of America’s Smith said Gonzalez-Pardo’s modification actually begins in November, but Gonzalez-Pardo disputes that. The bank spokesman also said the bank has tried to reach Gonzalez-Pardo several times to discuss the situation.

If Bank of America is found to not be in compliance with the state’s settlement, Wiggins said the state could return to court and ask for penalties, fines and attorneys fees.

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© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://ping.fm/wjM5c

For More information on how to have your Home Loan Modified call Christian Kelch at 866-945-6722 x1