Mansfield Massachusetts Home Foreclosed | Habitat For Humanity Home Foreclosure
MANSFIELD — Richland County Habitat for Humanity recently filed for foreclosure against a woman who has lived in a Habitat home at 72 Greenwood Ave. since 1994.
Doris M. Nabors voluntarily agreed to work with Habitat to allow the house to be sold at sheriff’s sale, so the nonprofit can recover the less than $10,000 she owed, Habitat director Veronna Drane said.
Nabors now lives in an apartment in Plymouth. She refinanced the house on the city’s near south side with CitiFinancial Inc. for $24,602 in 2007, then $31,868 in 2008, without Habitat’s knowledge.
But generally, other “partner families” living in the 43 houses the local Habitat chapter has built or rehabbed since its founding in the early 1990s are faring well, despite the recent economic downturn, Drane said.
“Our families are doing good,” she said.
Of the 43 homes, two have been lost to foreclosure after families refinanced with outside banks then had trouble making payments.
And Habitat has worked out loan modifications with two other families, to allow more time to pay off their debt while they get past temporary financial difficulties.
“They lost a job, things like that,” Drane said.
Habitat began putting financial safeguards into place after local officials realized in the early part of the decade that lenders seemed to be targeting Mansfield’s lower-income neighborhoods for home refinancing schemes.
Fair Housing Director Don Mitchell said he has heard about aggressive marketing to homeowners convincing them to refinance for more than the house actually was worth. Sometimes it is under terms that made it unlikely a homeowner could pay them back.
Habitat’s early partner families “were wide open to predatory lenders,” Drane said.
The actual worth of the house they lived in was much greater than the debt on paper, for homes built or rehabbed using volunteer construction crews. So Habitat began taking out second mortgages to cover the difference on its later homes.
“That makes it less attractive for predatory lenders to move in and sweep up that equity,” Olecki said.
“Unfortunately she (Nabors) was one of the first mortgages we did,” she said.
Richland County homeless coalition agencies also began sponsoring workshops on budgeting and financing, for lower-income families who might be targeted for refinancing.
Habitat learned too late that Nabor had run into difficulties, after she began having difficulty making payments, Drane said.
Nabors owes Habitat for Humanity less than $10,000, but Citifinancial Inc. holds a lien for $30,000 from the refinancing, Drane said.
“The house will go to sheriff’s sale. This particular house, I don’t know that it will sell for what’s outstanding on (both) liens. We’re first in line,” she said.
Attorney Joseph Olecki, a former Habitat board member representing the nonprofit, said Habitat doesn’t like to foreclose on homes, but needs to do that because of the debt Nabors owes Citifinancial.
“We would just take the property back, but the owner took out a second mortgage and can’t just give us a deed,” he said.
Nabors moved out on her own.
“We didn’t kick her out,” he said.
When she moved into the Greenwood Avenue home, she was looking for a place to raise her family. But she’s older now, and does not want the responsibility of taking care of a multistory house, Drane said.
She has cooperated with Habitat on its plan to foreclose on 72 Greenwood to recover debt.
“She would love to sign it over to another family,” it that were possible, Drane said.
A different Habitat house at 170 Boston Ave. was sold back to Habitat at sheriff’s sale a year ago for $32,000 after its owner got involved in a refinancing tangle, the Habitat director said. That house has been rehabbed, for $12,200, and a second Habitat family moved in recently.
Other than those foreclosures and two loan modifications, “we still have families out there who are paying, and who are very appreciative about the opportunity they have had to own a Habitat home,” the Habitat director said.
“It’s such a good deal for people. They’re paying no interest,” Olecki said. “Most do pretty well. But there are people who fall behind.”
The Richland County chapter reached a milestone last year when the first of its 43 partner families paid off their debt. “We have another that is within $500 of being paid off,” Drane said.
“Habitat is continuing to move along. We will be closing on another house within the month,” she said.
Drane said perhaps 10 percent of all houses Habitat sponsored over the past two decades were rehabs, rather than new homes.
Habitat has begun negotiating with the City of Mansfield to see whether it’s possible to buy and rehab one or two houses “that need a little bit of love.”
Returning to rehab projects makes sense for the nonprofit, Drane said. Habitat can build a new home for $75,000. But, she added, “we might be able to do two, maybe three rehabs for that.”
“Our hope is that through the (federal) Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding that is coming down that we could acquire a home that was foreclosed on — or two — turn them around, and offer them at zero-percent interest to a low-income family,” Drane said.
But Habitat also is grappling with new construction projects.
The First Energy Foundation offered the Richland County board a donation of $25,000. Habitat is now seeking about $50,000 in matching funds to build a new house.
“Like many nonprofits, we are struggling to find the funding to do what we do. Times are tough. We are in desperate need of funding,” Drane said.
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