Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 6-13-17

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Beware Of Home Loan Modification Scams
Former Judge To Run For Attorney General
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
A former Hillsborough County Judge has announced her candidacy for Attorney General. The post is currently held by Attorney Pam Bondi, who must vacate be- cause of term limits. Attor- ney Bondi has given her support to Attorney Moody.
Attorney Moody said, “I’m excited to announce that I’ve officially filed to be Florida’s next Attorney Gen- eral. With so much at stake for the safety of our state, it is my firm belief that our next Attor- ney General must be ready to lead on Day One.
“After nearly two decades of service to the law, first by put- ting violent criminals behind
ASHLEY MOODY ... Seeks Office of Attorney General
bars as a federal prosecutor and then as a Circuit Court judge, I believe I’m equipped with the knowledge and expert- ise to fight for hardworking, law-abiding Floridians and keep our state safe.”
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Seven years after the housing bubble, Florida re- mains among the top states in the country with the high- est foreclosure rates and a leader in real estate scams and mortgage fraud.
But homeowners don’t have to fall prey to phony schemes, said Barbara Floyd Jones, a senior man- ager at NeighborWorks, a Washington-based nonprofit that champions affordable housing and community de- velopment.
While the economy has recovered from the last decade’s bust, many home- owners are still struggling to pay their mortgage.
Looking for relief, some resort to modifying their home loans. But instead of getting the financial break they seek, many end up a vic- tim of scammers, Jones said.
That’s because scammers and their scams – including fake government modifica- tion programs, forensic loan audit, and bait-and-switch – have gotten more sophisti- cated over the years, she said.
“One of the ways scams happen is (scammers) say ‘we will expedite the process’ or ‘we’ll work with the lender on your behalf’,” she said. “A lot of times when we want something done quickly, we want someone else to do it.”
While Americans of all economic backgrounds and races are affected by housing scams, African-Americans, Hispanic, and seniors file the most complaints, Jones said.
Homeowners who need to modify their home loans should look first to their mortgage company, not an outside firm.
A loan modification can be a slow process that can
frustrate homeowners and lead them to seek the services of dubious companies that can promise faster results.
But lenders have imple- mented changes to make the process easier, including pairing homeowners with one contact and streamlining paperwork, Jones said.
“So what used to be taxing is very simple,” she said.
Another trusted resource are the housing counseling agencies approved by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, she said.
Housing counselors can offer a variety of services in- cluding assistance with rent- ing or buying a home or filtering options for home loan modifications.
They’ll know about the latest government-backed programs and initiatives of which financial institutions may not be aware or do not provide, such as cash-for- keys and moving assistance, Jones said.
Housing counselors can be located via the depart- ment’s website at www.hud.gov.
“It’s important that peo- ple know they can always turn to their local housing counselor,” she said.
Tips to Help Avoid Foreclosure and Scams
June is National Home- ownership Month. Learn
how you can protect yourself against scammers with help from the Loan Modification Scam Alert campaign:
1. Do not talk to loan modi- fication or foreclosure rescue companies. There are people and companies, even some lawyers, who may try to scam you out of your money.
2. Contact your lender first and ask to speak to your lender’s loss mitigation de- partment as soon as you get concerned about your mort- gage. Include your full name and loan number on every page, front and back that you email, mail or fax to the lender.
3. Be patient, yet very per- sistent with your lender. Get- ting a loan modification may take more time than you think.
4. Call the Homeowner's HOPE Hotline at 1-888-995- HOPE for free help. Trained counselors are available 24 hours a day to provide assis- tance in multiple languages. 5. Report loan modification or foreclosure scams anytime by calling 1-888-995-HOPE (4673). Reports are added to the Federal Trade Commis- sion’s Consumer Sentinel Database and sent to the At- torney General in your state.
Find more information at www.loanscamalert.org.
Group Says Replace Lee School Name With Carter G. Woodson
At the Hillsborough County School Board meeting Tuesday, June 13th, President Tina Middleton and members of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and His- tory (ASALH) will request that the name of Tampa Heights’ Robert E. Lee Elementary School of Technology be re- placed with the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Woodson founded ASALH in Chicago in 1915. The meeting begins at 3 p. m. at 901 E. Kennedy Boule- vard and is open to the public.
Lee Elementary School got itsnamein1933asawayof local residents celebrating the head of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. General Lee, who owned nearly 200 enslaved Africans before the war, later was found guilty of treason and was stripped of his full rights as an American citi- zen.
He never served time in prison and, instead, became president of Washington (later renamed Washington and Lee) College. He was revered throughout the South long after his death in 1870. Numer- ous schools were named for him, statues were erected in his likeness (such as the one the mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana recently con- demned) and his reputation has generally remained sterling in America until recently.
“Lee said Blacks were for- tunate that Whites took them from an uncivilized Africa and brought them to the New World,” said local historian
DR. CARTER G. WOODSON
Fred Hearns. “And he op- posed Blacks having the right to vote during Reconstruction because they ‘lacked intelli- gence.’ Lee also said after slav- ery ended that all African-Americans should be removed from his home state of Virginia.”
ASALH will ask the school board to remove Lee’s name from the building and replace it with that of Woodson, who is known as the Father of African- American history and who founded what today is cele- brated as Black History Month.
“In 1915 Woodson organ- ized ASALH (originally known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History) be- cause he wanted the world to know, appreciate and celebrate the many accomplishments of Black people,” Hearns said.
According to author Ran- dal Jelks, Woodson visited the Tampa Heights home of Benjamin Mays in the late 1920s, when Mays was execu- tive secretary of the Tampa Urban League.
PAGE 8 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2017